Zanu PF learned one important lesson from 2008 GNU - how to turn MDC into its election ally W Mukori

 The 2008 Zimbabwe elections were a watershed moment in the country’s political history. The elections and the 2008 to 2013 GNU that followed shook Zanu PF to the core and transformed the country’s political landscape. Zanu PF’s iron grip on power has never been more tenuous as it was during the GNU. 

Still it was Zanu PF that was best able to read the new landscape, to adapt and not only survive but to thrive. The MDC failed to deliver the knockout punch when Zanu PF was on the ropes during the GNU and they have since become a harmless paper tiger! 

The most likely threat to Mnangagwa’s hold on power is from within Zanu PF, a new faction emerging from his Lacoste faction and/or teaming up with a re-energised G40. 

Ever since the country’s independence in 1980, Zanu PF has cheated and used all manner of violence, intimidation, harassment, beatings and even cold blooded murder to secure electoral victory. The 2008 elections were the toughest ever elections the party has ever face and to win the party resorted to extreme measures.

The 2008 elections were held at the height of Zimbabwe’s worst economic meltdown; hyperinflation, fuelled by the collapse of the country’s agricultural sector and the voodoo economic policy of printing money, soared to dizzying heights of 500 billion percent. The Z$ was worthless and it was near impossible to conduct any meaningful business activity. The people were desperate to get Zanu PF out of office!

“If there is only Mugabe and the donkey on the ballot paper, people will vote for the donkey!” was the common banter, at the time! 

There is no doubt that Zanu PF employed its usual vote rigging tactics but, as the results of the March 2008 elections started to filter through, it was clear the party was heading for electoral defeat! The party jumped in and stopped the results being announced. 

It took six weeks for the party to cook up acceptable election result. Tsvangirai’s 73% vote count, by Mugabe’s own Freudian slip, was reduced to 47%, enough to force a presidential run-off. 

The run-off was to be an orgy of violence as Zanu PF unleashed its militant party youths and the war veterans backed by the Police, Army and CIO to destroy property, beat, rape and murder, over 500 innocent people were murdered in cold blood. The people were being punished for rejecting Mugabe in the early vote. 

Tsvangirai was forced to withdraw from the run-off and Mugabe won the one-horse race with 84% of the votes.

The international community dismiss the 2008 elections as a farce. Even SADC and AU, known for endorsing dodgy Zanu PF elections in the past, could not, in all honest, ignore the blatant cheating and shocking barbarism of the 2008 elections. 

SADC and AU refused to recognise Mugabe and his Zanu PF party as the legitimate government. To say Mugabe was shocked, is an understatement! 

The late Robert Gabriel Mugabe was a megalomania whose hunger for power and wealth was insatiable. Ever since the day he was elected Zanu PF leader he has used every dirty trick there is to make sure he remain the top dog. He bribed and blackmailed, not always in equal measure, those around him to help him created and retain the Zanu PF dictatorship with himself as the dictator.  

So when Mugabe was given no choice but to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement, agreeing to the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms to dismantle his dictatorship and life-time’s work, he was shocked beyond words. And having to share power with Morgan Tsvangirai, the man had repeatedly called added insult to injury.

However, it gave Mugabe sleepless nights for the five years of the GNU, was the real prospect of the GNU fulfilling its primary task of implementing the democratic reforms and thus dismantle his de facto one-party dictatorship! As things turned out, Tsvangirai and his MDC friends turned out to be breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent.

Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office; the ministerial limos, the very generous salaries and allowances, regular no-expense spared overseas trips, a US$4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc. With their snouts in the feeding trough, MDC leaders throw the reforms out of the window. Not even the regular nagging by SADC leaders to implement the reforms could get Tsvangirai and company to implement even one reform in five years!

So Zanu PF emerged out of the GNU will all its dictatorial powers untouched and has been rigging elections as before only this time the party gave away a few gravy train seats to the opposition to entice them to participate and give the process credibility and legitimacy. 

“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. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards,” stated the EU 2018 Election Mission final report.”

There were 23 candidates in the July 2018 presidential race and 130 political parties, to say nothing of independent candidates, all contesting for the 210 parliamentary seats. This was proof that Zimbabweans themselves approved the country electoral standards and that surely matters more than the “international standards”! 

Of course, the MDC and the rest of the opposition politicians knew that 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote (Mnangagwa was declared winner with 2.4 million votes), that there is no verified voters’ roll, etc., etc. Of course, these basic requirements are universal requirement for free, fair and credible elections in Zimbabwe and anywhere in the world.

Chamisa and company knew the 2018 elections were not going to be free, fair and credible. They still participated regardless because they also knew Zanu PF was giving away the few gravy train seat - these they cannot resist! 

It is now over a decade since the watershed 2008 elections and the golden opportunity for meaningful democratic changes during the GNU that followed. It is not only important to understand that MDC leaders failed to deliver the democratic reforms during the GNU but by participating in flawed and illegal elections the opposition is allowing Zanu PF to rig elections and avoid the public censor leading to a new GNU and new chance to get the reforms implemented. 

Zanu PF learned one very important lesson following the watershed 2008 elections that the party can continue cheating and rigging elections as long as it allowed MDC to win a few gravy train seats. Zanu PF is bribing the opposition making them its ally in the fight to deny the ordinary Zimbabweans their basic freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote.

"Uploading evidence of Mnangagwa looting. Don't miss it!" twittered Moyo - "Rinemanyanga hariputirwi!" N Garikai

 "Today (8 December 2020) I will upload unimpeachable evidence that Mnangagwa, and his wife Auxillia, are the real barons of money laundering and gold smuggling in Zimbabwe. Don't miss it!” twittered Professor Jonathan Moyo

Professor Jonathan Moyo, corruption has been institutionalised in Zimbabwe, the wholesale looting of diamonds that has been taking place in Marange and Chiadzwa for decades was approved by the Zanu PF/GNU cabinets and parliaments dating back to 2006!

It was the Zimbabwe government’s cabinet that granted the diamond mining concessions to all the operators. 

 

The late Edward Chindori-Chininga 2012 report to parliament revealed the details of the mining concessions: the holders do not keep any records of the quantity and quality of diamonds, no record of where the diamonds are sold and for how much, no record of who the partners are and how much each is earning, etc., etc. This is all done for the purpose avoiding cooperate or individual tax liabilities!

Similar mining concessions have been granted in other areas such as gold, platinum and lithium and in other areas. 

Since the wholesale looting has cabinet and parliament approval, other state institutions such as the Auditor General, tax collecting bodies, ZACC, the Police, etc. have all been told to stay out of all these ring-fenced areas.

It is no secret that Mnangagwa and many of his cabinet members are the Godfathers of corruption; corruption has been legalised and institutionalised; this is why it is impossible to uprooted corruption as long as Zanu PF remains in power!

Of course, Professor Moyo would know all the juicy details of who the Godfathers of corruption are, their holdings, how they amassed their wealth, etc., etc. Professor Moyo was a Zanu PF insider for decades and was shrewd enough to know the dirty details of what was going on in the party and to keep a record. He is now willing to share some of the record with us. 

It was just a matter of time before the truth about the corruption and rot in Zimbabwe came out. Mnangagwa, Mugabe, etc. they all knew the truth cannot be hidden forever. “Rine manyanga hariputirwi!” as one would say in Shona!

"Change is unstoppable" said Chamisa - should be done and dusted but after 20 years haven't even started P Guramatunhu

 “What we know is victory is certain, it’s only a matter of time. Every struggle has its own unique characteristics. We know exactly what we are doing – please do not panic,” Nelson Chamisa told his audience over the weekend.

If MDC knew what it was doing then why has the party failed to implement even one democratic reform in 20 years, 5 of which the party was in the 2008 to 2013 GNU? The party has never had any ideas what to do to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship, as Dr Ibbo Mandaza has pointed out.

“Although in its name, logo, ideology and political programme the MDC was formed as a reform party, in direct opposition to Zanu-PF's anti-reform agenda, it is instructive that, since its formation, the MDC has squandered four major opportunities for reform headways in favour of making news headlines in the politics of the day, in the vain hope of either taking from or sharing with Zanu-PF the spoils of political power,” wrote Dr Ibbo Mandaza in The Standard.

“In the circumstances, the squandering of reform headways in favour of news headlines has been the bane of opposition politics in Zimbabwe. Despite if not in spite of styling itself as a pro-reform movement, the MDC has not had a theory of the case, that is a theory of change, based on the understanding of change through reforms as an incremental process driven by milestones that make headways towards incrementally achieving the objectives of the case.”

Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had no idea what the democratic changes were; however, what they did know was that their election into public office was their ticket to join Zimbabwe’s exclusive ruling elite club and with that membership came the gravy train benefits and good-life. 

The whole international community, including the usually reticent SADC and AU, condemned Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections as a farce because of the blatant cheating and wanton violence by Zanu PF. SADC leaders pressured Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) agreeing to the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms designed to restore the individual freedoms and rights and to stop a repeat of the blatant election rigging of 2008. 

MDC were the GNU partners entrusted the task of implementing the democratic reforms. 

Robert Mugabe bribed his fellow Zanu PF cronies to abandon their revolutionary values of freedom, justice and prosperity for all and support him in imposing the de facto one party dictatorship in return for a share of the spoils of absolute power. They agreed. Mugabe contrived to do the same with the MDC leaders, bribe them with the trappings of high office in return for MDC abandoning reforms. It worked!

“Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyere!” (MDC leaders have learned to enjoy the gravy train spoils of power; they will not rock the boat!) boasted Zanu PF cronies during the GNU, when asked why MDC was not implementing any reforms. 

SADC leaders made a last minute desperate bid to get the Zimbabwe’s 2013 elections postponed until the reform are implemented. 

“In 2013 the Maputo Summit, in June 2013, before the elections, the Maputo Summit was all about having the elections postponed,” Dr Ibbo Mandaza told Journalist Violet Gonda in 2017.

“Mugabe pretended to agree to a postponement of the elections.

“Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, all of them were called to a separate meeting by the Heads of State of SADC in the absence of Mugabe, that same evening. And they were told; ‘if you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done’.”

MDC leaders paid no heed to SADC leaders’ stern warning and participated in the 2013 elections and, five years latter in the 2018 elections, for the same reasons they had failed to implement reforms during the GNU - they had no clue what the reforms were about and, besides, they were contend sharing the spoils of power with Zanu PF. 

MDC leaders have tasted the sweetness of power; they love it and are hooked. It is true, the party has failed to implement even one reform in 20 years; none of the leaders will ever admit failure much less accept they must step down. 

The party has no clue what to do to end the Zanu PF dictatorship, still MDC sees itself as the natural successor to Zanu PF, however long it takes to get rid of the regime.

The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC into power on the understanding the party will bring about the democratic changes the nation has been dying for. After 20 years MDC has not delivered even one change.

“Don’t underestimate the commitment of the children of change. The wave of change is unstoppable. Those who are trying to dismantle the people’s party are wasting their time. We are unstoppable -that’s an undeniable fact,” said Chamisa.

MDC leaders had their golden opportunity, during the 2008 GNU, to bring change and they wasted it. Ever since they have become as helpless in forcing Zanu PF to change as a feather, caught in a gust of wind, in changing the wind’s direction. MDC leaders’ primary concern is to hang on! 

Chamisa’s unconstitutional seizure of power following Tsvangirai’s death in 2018, has done more to divide MDC than any other event in the MDC’s history. All the MDC factions will be participating in the 2023 elections even if not even one token reform is implemented. Zanu PF knows that and taking full advantage of it and so will resist implementing reforms for years to come.

As long as Zanu PF retains carte blanche power to rig elections, there will be no meaningful democratic change in Zimbabwe!

Democratic change should have been done and dusted by now. And yet in 20 years, MDC failed has failed to get the process started by implemented even one reform. “Change is unstoppable!” nauseating coming from one who has failed to get change started in 20 years. 

"Sanctions are hampering prosperity" said Mnangagwa - didn't stop US$2 b Blue Roof, Parthenon to greed W Mukori

  Ever since Zimbabwe gained her independence in 1980, 40 years ago, the nation has been on a quest for freedom, justice, peace and economic prosperity for all. “Gutsva ruzhinji!” as Robert Mugabe never seemed to tire of saying throughout the 1980s! When the country attained her independence many Zimbabweans never doubted for a moment that all these things were not just within their reach but were right in the hands already. They were wrong!

The people’s first rude awakening was the elections leading to independence on 18 April 1980. Whilst the whole nation had grown to hold the black nationalist clarion call of “One man, one vote!” as sacrosanct. Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF freedom fighters made it clear that if the party did not win the plebiscite the civil war would continue. And so the people had no choice but to vote to end the war. 

Zanu PF won the 1980 elections and went to work to systematically erode the people’s freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life. 

Some people had argued that Zanu PF’s threat to continue the civil war if the party lost the 1980 elections was just an empty electioneering mantra, the party would have never restarted the war if it had lost the elections. The doubters were silenced by the Zanu PF instigated 1983 to 1987 Gukurahundi massacre. The primary purpose of the massacre was to force PF Zapu, Zanu PF’s main political opponent, to sign the Unity Accord, uniting the two parties creating the de facto one-party dictatorship that has ruled the country to this day. 

And so the the overwhelming majority of Zimbabweans life has been a great disappointment as they have sunk deeper and deeper into economic poverty and denied their freedoms, rights and human dignity. Their pre-independence hopes and dreams for freedom, justice, a fair share of the nation’s wealth and riches are either a long forgotten memory or a mirage, they can see it but forever out of reach.

Zanu PF, the country’s ruling elite, have an explanation why Zimbabweans are poor.

“To this day, our quest to the unhindered right to access and utilise our natural resources continues being hampered. In the case of Zimbabwe, sanctions constrain the realisation of our full socioeconomic potential,” Emmerson Mnangagwa told his audience at the ground-breaking ceremony of the Museum of African Liberation in Warren Park, Harare.

"In the case of other countries on our continent, detractors continue to fund and fuel divisions so that while we fight, the pilferage and looting of our resources goes unchecked. Learning from our history and past, the time has come for us to deliberately and more consciously defend our interests as the people of Africa.”

After 40 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption the people know that these are the real causes of the country’s economic meltdown. They can see the sprawling Blue Roof palatial mansion valued at US$ 2 to 4 billion, the epitome of Zanu PF ruling elite lavish lifestyles. After building his C & M mansion, VP Chiwenga bought a fleet of posh cars, bought 45 gold watches, etc., etc. 

The ruling elite’s insatiable greed for money and luxuries were all paid for the wealth looted from the nation. Key national institutions like hospitals have been starved of funds; so starved that even referral Hospitals like Parerenyatwa, Mpilo, etc. have regularly run out of even the most basic drugs like painkillers were starved of funds. 

Sanctions! Yeah right! How come sanctions stopped government buying painkillers for hospitals but did not stop Mugabe build the US$2 billion Blue Roof, Zimbabwe’s Parthenon temple to corruption and greed.

It was the noble prize physicist Albert Einstein who said “Insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result!”

The people of Zimbabwe do not believe the West are holding back the country’s development much less that Zanu PF has solutions to mitigate the sanctions, contrary to the repeated claims saying otherwise. The people know these are all hen’s teeth tales. 

After 40 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF misrule and being dragged deeper and deeper into this hell-on-earth; the people are not expecting the regime to be competent and just and to deliver economic prosperity. They are not insane! 

“So, why have the people of Zimbabwe done nothing to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and end their oppression and economic suffering?” you might well ask. 

The answer is the people have indeed risked life and limb in electing Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friend into power these last 20 years on the understanding they would implement the democratic reforms the nation was dying for. 

MDC leaders have had many golden opportunities to implement the reforms, notably during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Sadly, the MDC leaders have proven to be corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. 

Mugabe bribed Tsvangirai and company with the trappings of high office and the MDC leaders, just as the Zanu PF cronies had done in 1980, betrayed the people’s trust and commonwealth interests. 

The people of Zimbabwe trusted Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies, they viewed them as national liberation heroes and heroines only to be knock down as the liberators turned into the corrupt and ruthless tyrants. They people turned to MDC believing they would deliver the democratic changes the nation was dying for, only to be betrayed again. 

The people of Zimbabwe have been knocked down again and again and after each fall it is very hard to get up again! Before they get up again the people are desperate for some assurance their hopes and dreams of freedom, justice, peace and economic prosperity will finally be honoured and fulfilled. It is not too much to ask!

Zimbabwe's failure to hold free, fair and credible elections is the root cause of the country's economic and political problems. Mnangagwa, just like Mugabe before him is blaming the sanctions for the nation's problems only because he is the one rigging the elections and responsibility for the looting and will never blame himself.

"Zim prison is a crime against humanity" twittered prisoner Biti - true but only because been selling out on reforms P Guramatunhu

 Tendai Biti, MDC A vice President, has been arrested and will spend Friday night in a Police Prison. He is charged with assault, after calling a Russian woman an idiot.

Biti has denied any wrong doing and claims the arrest is to stop him and the parliamentary committee he is heading investigating the illegal awarding of land during former Minister Ignatius Chombo’s days. 

“The Harare Airport Road project was a total stink where thousands of hectares of land where illegally and fraudulently transferred to Augur Investments and its shelf companies. That land must be returned to the city and its citizens. They want to detain me overnight, so be it,” said Biti.

“Awaiting detention. In the absence of sanitizers, PPEs, running water, flushing toilets, repellents and decent food any detention in Zim prisons at the moment is cruel & degrading treatment. A crime against humanity

 #ZimbabweanLivesMatter.” 

Zimbabwe’s prison conditions are notoriously filthy and a real danger to life, especially these days with the added danger of getting the corona virus.

Still, one hopes that the night in the Police cell has forced Tendai Biti think about the 2008 to 2013 GNU golden opportunity Zimbabwe had to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections and thus end the de facto one-party dictatorship. It was none other than MP Tendai Biti and fellow MDC friends who wasted the golden opportunity and failed to get even one reform implemented in five years. Not even one!

President Robert Mugabe, Zanu PF leader and Zimbabwe’s dictator at the time, bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office and the rest is history. Instead of implementing the reforms MDC leaders were falling over each other praising the dictator to the high heaven. 

“President Mugabe is the unflappable father of the nation, fountain of wisdom,” sung Tendai Biti. He was the Minister of Finance in the GNU. Fancy that! A corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous tyrant; seen through the rose tinted glass of the ministerial limo, had metamorphosed into the unflappable fountain of wisdom!  

If Tendai Biti and company had kept their eyes on the ball and implemented the democratic reforms; the 2013 and 2018 elections would have been free, fair and credible. Zimbabwe would be a totally different country, a healthy and functioning democracy well on its way to meaningful economic recovery! 

No reforms were implemented and so the country is still stuck with the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. The country’s economy is still in ruins and sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss. 

What is unforgivable is that Tendai Biti and his MDC friends have not only refused to admit they sold-out in failing implementing the reforms during the 2008 GNU but, worst of all, they have since then contrived to continue selling out on the fight for free, fair and credible elections! 

The MDC leaders have known that with no democratic reforms in place Zanu PF will rig the elections and yet Biti and company have participated in the 2013 and then 2018 (all signs are they will do the same in 2023), regardless. Zanu PF has offered a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to participate, bait MDC leaders found irresistible. 

Of course, Tendai Biti and company knew the few gravy train seats were bait and that by participating they would give the flawed and illegal election process credibility; as David Coltart admitted in his book. 

“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,” wrote Senator 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.”

Senator Coltart was himself one of the MDC Ministers during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. He is now the Treasurer General of the MDC A, the coalition of three main MDC factions formed just before the 2018 election. 

By continuing to participate in these flawed and illegal elections, MDC and the rest in the opposition camp are giving these elections credibility and, with it, giving the vote rigging Zanu PF government legitimacy. 

So MP Tendai Biti should not just think about his time in prison as “cruel & degrading treatment, a crime against humanity” but most important of all that millions of Zimbabweans, inside and outside prison, are suffering the same or worse conditions. 

And, most important of all, that the nation would have been saved from all this suffering and deaths if he and his MDC friends have not been selling-out on reforms and free, fair and credible elections. Food for thought; assuming he is not punch drunk on powers and his brain is now totally impermeable to reason and logic. 

Thank God for Corona virus vaccine; it addresses health needs - next, economic needs P Guramatunhu

 It was just over a year ago, November 2019, that the world learned of the corona virus outbreak in China. By March 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the outbreak a world pandemic. 

Corona virus has spread round the globe like wild fire. As of the end of November 2020, a year since the first cases in China, there were 13.9 million confirmed cases and 273 000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University report. The true figure is much, much high; many countries, especially in Africa, have not hardly followed the WHO test, trace and track protocol. 

As of yesterday, 2 nd December 2020, Great Britain approved the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine. A 21 gun salute to all those involved in this milestone achievement. 

Judging from the time it took to develop the Ebola virus vaccine, the corona virus vaccine was developed in record time. 

The first Ebola virus outbreak was in 2011 with the most serious outbreak two and half years latter in March 2014. There were over 28 000 reported cases and over 11 000 deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. 

Europe approved the M&A Johnson & Johnson Ebola vaccine in November 2019; eight years after the first Ebola virus case. 

The Pfizer/BioNtech corona virus vaccine was not only developed in record time, it is a novel vaccine too. 

The corona virus virion is tiny, 0.1 micron in diameter. A really sharp razor blade is 0.3 micron wide; wide enough for three corona virus to march three abreast like Roman Soldiers down a highway. 

What the Pfizer/BioNTech scientist have done is cut open this 0.1 micron sphere, find its DNA, snip off the genetic code instructing the virus to grow its characteristic porcupine quills, the corona virus spike protein. 

The Pfizer vaccine delivers the snipped off genetic code into the human body which then instruct the human cells to grow the characteristic spike protein. The body’s own defence system recognised the porcupine cells as invaders and produce white cells and T-cell to destroy the invaders. 

The next time the body is invaded by the corona virus the body will remember the characteristic spike protein and produce the appropriate white and T-cells to attack the virus. 

The summit of science! 

If it is not tempting providence, it is fair to say the accelerating advances in technology has left mankind wiser and better prepared than ever before at whatever nature throws at us! At least those nation who have embraced technology! 

As far as corona virus was concerned, Zimbabwe was a sitting duck! The outbreak occurred at a time when the country’s economy was in total meltdown and its health care services all but in total collapse. Zimbabwe did not have the money to buy the PPE to issue to frontline workers, to buy the tests kits to keep track of the virus, the hospital equipment and staff to deal with the corona virus cases. 

The little PPE, tests kits, etc. Zimbabwe received throughout this period was donated. Now that the vaccine is available, the country will be adding it to its long begging list; we have begged for everything!

Zimbabwe was not even is a position carry out even the most basic corona virus prevention measures like washing one’s hands regularly because most Zimbabweans have no access to clean running water. It has become normal for households in urban centres and even big institutions like schools and hospitals to have no clean running water for weeks and even months at a time! 

Back in 1980, when the country attained her independence, Parerenyatwa Hospital was one of the top ten hospitals in Africa, well equipment and staffed. Even before the corona virus outbreak, there were reports of doctors cancelling even the most basic surgical operations because there were no painkillers. The hospital was having to wash bandages and no water to wash them with. 

Who can forget how head of the paediatric unit Azza Mashumba wept openly describing the state of affairs at public hospitals.

"I come to work to certify dead babies!” wept Dr Azza Mashumba, head of the paediatric unit. 

Zimbabwe’s health care service, the economy, etc. have all but collapse not because for the last 40 years the country’s ruling elite have creamed off the nation’s wealth to build mansions and bankroll their lavish lifestyles. Mugabe’s sprawling Blue Roof mansion, there are many others for his cronies, is Zimbabwe’s answer to the Greeks’ Parthenon. 

The Parthenon was built to honour the Goddess Athene and to mark Greece’s golden age of unparalleled prosperity, innovation and intellectual advance. The Blue Roof was built to honour corruption and greed and triggered Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown - the age of the mindless demagogues. 

Zimbabwe has been truly luck that the corona virus has not been as deadly as Ebola! Still the availability of the corona virus vaccine is a very well come development, the country will get some in its begging bowl.

The corona virus was not only a health hazard, it has caused serious economic disruption. Many economies have shrunk by as much as 10% plus in the last year. Corona virus has brought about a worldwide economic depression and it will probably take ten years or so to fully recovery to the pre-corona virus level. 

Economic depression bite hard those in the developed world and swallow whole those in the poor developing nations. A country like Zimbabwe which had the economic meltdown before the corona virus outbreak is in serious, serious trouble. There will be no vaccine for bad governance. 

Zimbabwe must now bite the bullet and address the problem of bad governance, the age of the mindless demagogues, the root cause of the country’s economic meltdown. We know the cure is to implement the reforms and thus ensure free, fair and credible elections. The nation has paid dearly for having allowed the Zanu PF dictatorship take root all these last 40 years and now the nation must act or the years ahead will be hell-on-earth.

"Walk alone, you walk fast; walk with others, go far" ZCC tell Mnangagwa and Chamisa - fast and far in wrong direction W Mukori

 Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. 

Zimbabwe is in this economic and political hell-on-earth because for the last 40 years the country has been stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and murderous Zanu PF dictatorship. Zanu PF has rigged the elections and again and again we, the people have allowed the party to govern regardless of its illegitimacy hoping against hope that this time it will be a competent. 

Sadly, after 40 years there are some people who still seek to appease Zanu PF hoping against reason that the regime will put aside its dictatorial powers to become a model democracy. 

Zimbabwe’s Council of Church are back again to their old song, calling on Zanu PF leader, Emmerson Mnangagwa, and MDC A leader, Nelson Chamisa “to find each other”!

"If you want to walk fast, walk alone. But if you want to walk far, walk with others." argued ZCC advisory board member Bishop Ignatius Makumbe. 

True, for the last 40 years the overwhelming majority of Zimbabweans have allowed Zanu PF to ride roughshod over them; to deny them their basic freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life itself. And after 40 years look where “walking with others” has landed the nation - in this hell-on-earth. 

Following a particularly obnoxious election in 2008, in which Zanu PF blatantly cheated and used wanton violence to win the elections, Zanu PF was forced by SADC to join MDC to form a GNU. The primary purpose of the GNU was to implement a raft of democratic reforms to stop the cheating and violence and thus end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. 

The leaders of the country’s main political parties did “find each other”, as Bishop Makumbe would put it in forming the 2008 to 2013 GNU. The country had more ministers, deputy ministers, governors, etc., etc.; more chiefs than Indians; and they all sat and enjoyed the trappings of high office. Sadly, that was all they did. 

The GNU failed to implement even one token democratic reform in five years. Not even one! 

With no reforms in place, Zanu PF was able to blatantly rig the 2018 elections and continue with its corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical rule and hence the reason are still stuck in this hell-on-earth. 

Whilst there is a tacit acknowledgement by Bishop Makumbe and his ZCC colleagues that the Zanu PF dictatorship has been a disaster for the country, the reason why the country is stuck in this hell-on-earth. But instead of putting and end to the curse of rigged elections and bad governance the church leaders want to retain Zanu PF and hence the call for Zanu PF and MDC A leaders to find each other. 

This is just foolish because the two party were in the 2008 to 2013 GNU that failed to implement even one reform. It is naive to believe the two parties will do any better given a second GNU. 

After 40 years of appeasing Zanu PF by letting the party rig elections and stay in power regardless, 40 years of blundering from pillar to post dragging the nation deeper and deeper into abject poverty, hopelessness and despair; we have travelled far and fast. The real important question all these has not been how far or how fast we are traveling. It was and still is to this day: Where are we going? 

In 1980 Zimbabwe produced enough food feed her own people with plenty left over to be the breadbasket of the region. The country had the potential to be the South Korea of Africa. “Zimbabwe is jewel of Africa, make sure you look after it,” the late Tanzania President, Julius Nyerere told Mugabe in 1980.

Nyerere’s wise words fell on deaf ears because Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies have all but destroyed Zimbabwe. After 20 years of misrule Mugabe crowned it with the looting of the farms to give to his ever demanding but wasteful cronies. Ever since the country has relied on imported food aid, we are so poor we cannot even pay for it. 

Zimbabweans are starving in a country that is for all practical purposes, the Biblical Garden of Eden; at least it was under white rule. A damning indictment of failed Zanu PF leadership. 

In 40 years Zanu PF has turning a rich country with a promising future into a basket case Banana Republic, a pariah ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs. All ZCC is proposing is that Zanu PF and MDC should “find each other” and continue down the same ruinous path Zanu PF has dragged the nation these last 40 years is the epitome of insanity. 

For the last 40 years we have been travelling in the wrong direction. The right direction and only direction we should travel is one that will finally dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship, end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. Appeasing the Zanu PF dictatorship is what got us into this mess in the first place and to hope against reason that it would, even after 40 years, is insane.