"A record successes towards attainment of vision 2030" said Mnangagaw - a midnight mirage

 "As we end today's Cabinet session, which is the last for the year 2020, it is imperative that we take stock of some of the achievements in our journey towards the attainment of Vision 2030," Mnangagwa said in his closing remarks at the final Cabinet meeting of the year.

"The year has recorded a number of successes, which would not have been possible without your commitment to duty and excellent performance."

For the last 40 years, without exception, Zanu PF has claimed the country was moving in the right direction to achieve its main objective of mass prosperity, “Gutsva ruzhinji!”, as Mugabe never tired of saying it. Many times the nation has been told whatever hardship the nation was going through, it was all part of the plain, these were necessary short term hardships to secure long term gains. 

The truth is the short term hardships have all stayed. Instead of building on what we inherited from the whites in 1980 we have been busy destroying it. 

Decades of poor investment in the electricity industry has left the country with less power generating capacity than it had in 1980. More often than not, one or more, out of the six, Hwange Thermal Power Station generators are off for one reason or other. The three Thermal Power Stations, one each in Harare, Bulawayo and Munyati, have long been decommissioned. 

The white government had plans for two more generating unit at Hwange and had completed the feasibility studies for Batoka Gorge Hydro, a second Kariba Dam. If it had not been for the civil war, these two projects would have been completed by the late 1980s. 

This Zanu PF government is hoping to finally have the two new generators commissioned at Hwange Power Station by 2023, 30 years later, and the regime is over the moon about its achievement. 

 "As a result, of the power generation projects being implemented, the country should be self-sufficient and become a net exporter of power by 2023," said Mnangagwa.

Well Zimbabwe has lost many of its heavy industrial companies, ZISCO, ZIMASCO, Sable Chemicals, ZIM ALLOYS, etc., still the addition of the two generator at Hwange will not be enough to meet country’s power demands. As for becoming a net exporter of electricity, that is just wishful thinking. 

According to Mnangagwa the country will finally attain the mass prosperity, attain upper middle income status, in 10 years time, Vision 2030. This is just  mirage and Mnangagwa himself knows it! 

Corruption remains the number one impediment to economic recovery in Zimbabwe; Mnangagwa acknowledge this when he declare “zero tolerance of corruption!” It has been three years since he took over from Mugabe and he has failed to stamp out corruption. 

In 2016 Robert Mugabe admitted the nation was being “swindled out of US$ 15 billion in diamonds revenue alone”! A staggering fortune for any country but much more for Zimbabwe whose GPD is US$10 billion.

Mugabe has never arrested one diamond swindler nor recover one swindled dollar. Mnangagwa has not done any better and we know why. 

It was none other than Mugabe and his cabinet who granted the diamond mining concessions in which the holder had no legal obligation to keep records of the quantity and quality of diamonds, to whom the diamonds were sold and for how much, how the spoils were shared out, etc. With no records the holder and his partners had no legal cooperate or individual tax obligations. None!

Of course, the diamond mining concession were a licence to loot! 

Naturally, it was not every Tom, Dick and Harry who got the diamond mining concessions. The concessions were granted to the top brass in the Army, Police, CIO and Prison Services, a select few from Zanu PF. 

The top brass in the security services also belonged to the Joint Operations Command, a Junta headed by Mugabe with Mnangagwa as his assistant. Mugabe has corrupted the country’s security services turning them into departments of Zanu PF in all but name. 

The Police, Army, etc. have all played a major role in establishing and retaining the de facto one-party, Zanu PF, dictatorship. The diamond looting licences were a thank you to Junta members from Zanu PF for a job well done. 

When Mnangagwa took over from Mugabe, he did so with the active assistance of the top brass in the Army. He rewarded the the key individuals in plotting and executing the coup by granting them senior positions in his government. The Junta is still his power base and so he has not cancelled any of the diamond looting licences.

Indeed, Mnangagwa has used the diamond looting licence as a template to grant the Army, CIO, etc. new licences in other areas. 

Mnangagwa also promised to hold free, fair and credible elections but, as we all know, he went on to rig the July 2018 elections. 

Mnangagwa’s “Zimbabwe is open for business!” is dead in the water. All the harp about the flood of investors never materialised. Investors are a shrewd and savvy lot, they knew it was going to take a lot more than some clever marketing to turn a dictatorship into a healthy democracy. 

By blatantly rigging the July 2018 elections, doing nothing to end corruption, etc. Mnangagwa left no one in any doubt that Zimbabwe was still a dictatorship or be it under a new dictator. 

Zimbabwe is a pariah state, ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs. And as long as the country remains a pariah state, there will never be any meaningful economic recovery. 

“Achievements in our journey towards the attainment of Vision 2030!” It is one thing talking about a mirage in broad day but only a first class village idiot will believe a mirage by star-light!

ZNA general join Chiwenga in defying decree to end "health export " - have wherewithal to pay, they're loaded N Garikai

 “Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) commander Lieutenant General Edzai Absolom Chanyuka Chimonyo is in India for medical treatment, The NewsHawks reported,” reported Pindula/Bulawayo 24.

“Lt. Gen. Chimonyo is said to be suffering from lung complications and was airlifted to the Asian country recently.”

The report reminded the reader of VP Chiwenga’s now infamous decree banning Zimbabweans from seeking health care service outside the country.

"We will not export our patients. We will not make referrals (to foreign medical facilities) for our patients. It's everybody,” said Chiwenga in September after taking on the Minister of Health Portfolio.

"Ministers are only about 20 but those who have been going out it's you, you, me, altogether.

"That export bill was too high and that's what we want to curtail. We want to do away with that, and it requires us to carry out restructuring from the village health worker right up to the quaternary hospital.”

VP Chiwenga is in China right now, his second health care trip this year alone. VP Chiwenga’s promise to stop “exporting our patients” was just hot air. 

Just as President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s repeated “zero tolerance on corruption”! is another blast of hot air. 

VP Chiwenga lives in the C&M mansion (before that it was C&J before he divorce his first wife and the mansion will have a new name because he is divorcing Marry, the second wife) and in the garage is a fleet of 6 posh cars. 

He has 45 golden watches. Whilst Grace Mugabe was obsessed about designer goods especially Gucci shoes - beside all the other luxuries like the sprawling Blue Roof mansion. For Chiwenga it is the very, very expensive watches that turns him on. 

Chiwenga has nearly US$ 250 000, all in USD, in just one bank account in Zimbabwe, according to the Court records in the ongoing divorce case with Marry. It is almost certain, he has other bank accounts in Zimbabwe and outside with cash, gold watches and other treasures.

No doubt Lt. Gen. Chimonyo, as a senior ZNA commander, has too amassed a respectable fortune, from the same source as VP Chiwenga and other ZNA top brass have amassed their fortunes. Chimonyo’s fortune may not be as large as that VP Chiwenga; he is playing catch-up!

It is one thing issuing a decree that no one should seek health care services outside Zimbabwe but quite another to enforce it; especially when the country cannot provide even the most basic health case services let alone the specialist services. And, most significant of all, when the individual seeking the services has the wherewithal to pay for it! 

VP Chiwenga defied his own decree not to seek health care services outside Zimbabwe precisely because he has the wherewithal to pay for it! The man is loaded and his obsession with very expensive watches; of course it down right stupid to buy 45 gold watches; is just a manifestation of one who has so much money and has run out of ideas of what to do with it!

If anyone is serious about stopping the VP Chiwenga, the Lt. Gen. Chimonyo, etc.; Zimbabwe’s filthy rich who are squandering billions of dollars on sprawling mansions, posh cars, luxury goods galore, health care services outside the country even for minor ailments, etc. etc.; we must first find the sources of their fabulous wealth. 

If the source of one wealth is legal and there are all the supporting documents including the tax returns to prove it; then, why not, let the individual spend their earned wealth as they please. 

However, if the lifestyle audit showed that the fabulous riches were not earned legally; then every dollar of the ill-got wealth must be taken away. And all those guilty of the illegal activities must be hunted down, tried in a court of law and duly punished. 

It is an open secret that VP Chiwenga, Lt. Gen. Chimonyo and all the other top brass in the Army have amassed their wealth from the ZNA’s diamond mining concession in Marange and Chiadzwa. Similar concession were granted to the other security services sectors like the Police and CIO and to a select Zanu PF leaders. The first concession were granted back in 2006 and there are still valid to this day.

Indeed, the diamond mining concessions have been ruled a great success, as far as this Zanu PF government is concerned, the idea has since been replicated in other areas.

It was the late Zanu PF MP, Edward Chindori-Chininga who, in a parliamentary report in 2012, shed some light on the very nature of these diamond mining concessions. The report showed the miners kept no record of the quantity and quality of the diamonds mined, where the diamonds are sold and for how much, who the beneficiaries were and how the spoils were shared, etc. With no records, there are no cooperate or individual tax obligations. 

The 2012 GNU parliament read and all other parliaments since have known of Chindori-Chininga’s report and have all done nothing about it. Silence, in this case, is consent. 

The wholesale looting of diamonds and other resources in Zimbabwe has all been approved by both the Zimbabwe cabinet and parliament. Corruption is institutionalised! 

People like VP Chiwenga know they will never get away with naming the ZNA mining concession as the source of they wealth when there are no records to prove he receive a single dollar from the activity. He knows the reason for keeping no records was to hide the truth, to hide the institutionalised corruption. 

Of course, every one knows that what is going on in Marange and Chiadzwa is illegal, no democratic and competent government in the world would ever grant a blank cheque to anyone to loot and plunder. And it is for this reason that the top brass in ZNA and all the other beneficiaries of the institutionalised corrupt in Zimbabwe will never allow any democratic reforms and regime change in Zimbabwe. They fear a lifestyle audit will reveal the corruption and rot in the country. 

If VP Chiwenga was serious about ending health care travellers and Mnangagwa was serious about stamping out corruption then they must demand a lifestyle audit for all citizens. 

Both President Mnangagwa and VP Chiwenga will never lift a finger to end institutionalised corruption because they are the Godfathers of corruption. 

As long as Zanu PF remains in power, Zimbabwe will never ever stamp out corruption. Never!

Zimbabwe will pay price for super low official covid cases, vaccine will get to match, 5.2% P Guramatunhu

 There is such a wide discrepancy between Zimbabwe and SA’s official covid-19 cases and deaths. 

Zimbabwe has 11 162 cases and 306 deaths compared to SA’s 845 083 cases and 22 952 deaths. Given the heavy human traffic between the two countries one expected Zimbabwe’s figures to be roughly 1/4 those of SA given our population is in the same ratio. 

The reason for the discrepancy is immediately obvious when one looks at the number of corona virus tests, 44 074 tests per day for SA. Adjusting to match population size, Zimbabwe should be doing 11 000 or so tests but is doing only 1 577 tests per day or 14.3%. 

The penalty for not carrying out as many tests as one should is that many people with the virus are missed out. And so many people who should otherwise be in isolation continue mixing with the rest of the population, spreading the virus. 

Failing to correctly identify corona virus deaths will also result in the spread of the virus since the strict burial protocol will not be followed. 

There is a scrabble for the vaccine and poor countries like Zimbabwe depending on donated vaccine will be among the last ones to get it. UK was the first country to get the Pfizer vaccine but it will be a year or more before Zimbabwe gets enough to vaccinate the at high risk group. It will be two years or more before it gets enough to vaccinate the whole population.

The amount of vaccine Zimbabwe will get for the high risk group and then the general population will be based of the OFFICIAL reported cases 11 162 which are 5.2% of the 211 000 cases or 1/4 of SA.  

Country	Cases	Deaths	Tests per day	Missed cases	Vaccine per case
South Africa	845 083	22 952	44 074		get 100%
Zimbabwe (official)	11 162	306	1 577	85.7%	get 5.2% of real
Zimbabwe (1/4 of SA)	211 000	5 700	11 000	0%	get 100%
% variation	5.2% of real	5.4% of real	14.3% below		short fall 94.8%

So by failing to carry out the covid-19 tests as diligently as SA Zimbabwe has missed out as much as 85.7% of the cases, people who should have been in isolation but instead have been spreading the virus. What is more, the country’s very low official cases and deaths have put the country in the at low risk category and will be treated accordingly. If the official figures are 5.2% of what the real figures are then we will get 94.8% of the vaccine and other assistance we should. 

There is no doubt that this Zanu PF government is pleased the country has one of the lowest covid-19 cases and death in the world. The country is certainly paying dearly for the lie with human suffering and lives and it is not even worth a farthing!

"MDC preoccupied with opposing itself" said Moyo - no substitute for quality, especially with life at stake W Mukori

 “The political opposition in Zimbabwe, particularly the MDC, is stuck in the middle: between making news headlines and making reform headways,” wrote Professor Jonathan Moyo.

“This is not new.

“Being stuck between making news headlines and making reform headways, has been the bane of opposition politics in Zimbabwe as far back as one cares to remember.”

The article made good read but was otherwise irrelevant because Professor Jonathan Moyo attributed to MDC leaders intellectual quality they did not have. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends saw the popular demand for democratic reform as an opportunity to get themselves elected into power so they can claim a share of the spoils of power. They were never going to implement any reforms because they did not know what they are then and still don’t, to this day. 

In all the 20 years of MDC’s existence no one, absolutely no one, has never ever articulated even one democratic reform and how it was to be achieved because no one has the intellect to think through any such niceties. They have all gone for the cheap headlines and slogans because that was the apex of their intellectual ability. 

It is not surprising that when MDC did get into power, in the 2008 to 2013 GNU, the party failed to get even one democratic reform implemented.

“MDC leaders were busy enjoying themselves during the GNU, they forgot why they were there!” remarked one SADC diplomat in sheer exasperation at the lost opportunity to implement reforms. He was right, MDC leaders sat, ate and enjoyed themselves for five years on the gravy train. He was wrong; Tsvangirai and the banded mongooses did not “forgot” why they were in the GNU - one does not forget something they have never had in their head. 

Of course, Professor Moyo knew the MDC banded mongooses had shot themselves in head by failing to implement even one reform in the five years of the GNU. This was the clinching argument Zanu PF used in rejecting the  SADC leaders’ demand for Zimbabwe to postpone the 2013 elections to allow time to implement reforms.

Patrick Chinamasa, who was the Zanu PF Minister of Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, argued Zimbabwe did not have any outstanding reforms to be implemented! The banded MDC mongooses had never submitted even one reform proposal in the five years of the GNU.

Professor Moyo was the one sitting next to Chinamasa when he dropped the bombshell; of course, he knew this was the biggie! He quickly jumped to 2017.

“The second original sin of the MDC is that its reform agenda was not informed by the structural impact of Gukurahundi on the Zimbabwean body politic,” argued Professor Moyo.

“Zanu-PF securocrats, led by Emmerson Mnangagwa, who saw himself as their political leader and future President of Zimbabwe right from the beginning in 1980, sought to build a Gukurahundi state in the country in which state security trumped state politics.

“If the MDC had factored this right from its formation, it would not have supported Mnangagwa's November 2017 military coup.”

Yes the securocrats wield a lot of political power in Zimbabwe but what Professor Moyo should have also said is that it was none other than Robert Mugabe himself who formed the Joint Operation Command (JOC). The Junta bring together the top brass in the country’s Police, Army, CIO and Prison Service plus a few select individuals from the party headed by Mugabe with Mnangagwa as his assistant. 

All Mugabe and his Zanu PF conies cared about was to secure absolute power and they were doing by hook and by crook. They knew the party did not have the intellectual finesse to retain power for long in a healthy and functioning democratic Zimbabwe. And so the party imposed a de facto one-party dictatorship as the only sure way to secure power and JOC was the ruthless enforcer of the dictatorial powers.

Both the GNU cabinet and parliament were aware of the lucrative diamond mining concession awarded to securocrats resulting in the wholesale looting that has gone on for the last 20 years. It was Mugabe thanking the JOC members for supporting the dictatorship but also to secure their blind loyalty to the dictatorship - a democratic government will never allow the looting. 

The 2017 military coup allowed a number of military personalities to emerge out of the shadow, yes. However the coup did not militarise Zimbabwe’s body politics or create a dictatorship; these two evils were already there. 

What Tsvangirai and his MDC friends should have was to implement democratic reforms designed to end Zanu PF’s strangle hold on the security sector, end the looting of resource and free all the security services to carry out their statutory duties properly and honourably. This should have been done and dusted by the end of 2008 to 2013 GNU after that MDC was just a toothless poodle.

MDC supported the November 2017 military coup and accomplish nothing. It is doubtful if condemning the coup would have accomplished much other than being right in principle, give the party was weak and feeble!

40 years and counting of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule has left Zimbabwe in economic ruins. Millions of Zimbabweans living in abject poverty, they cannot afford one decent meal a day much less other necessities such as education for the children and health care. The need to implement the democratic reforms to pave the way for free, fair and credible elections and an end to bad governance is now a matter of life and death. 

All Zanu PF thugs care about is to retain power at all cost. They believe they have the divine right to rule and would rather burn the country, make it ungovernable than allow some one else to rule.

After 20 years on the political stage and countless wasted opportunities we must now accept that MDC leaders are incompetent and will never implement the democratic reforms the nation has been dying for. 

“As things stand, the political opposition in Zimbabwe is preoccupied with opposing itself,” concluded Professor Moyo. He did hit the nail on the head, there. 

It pays in the end to get the best in the beginning! When it comes to political leaders, there really is no substitute for quality! 

Zimbabwe is bleeding, literally, to death for lack of competent leaders who know what the reforms are and have the political will and vision to implement them! 

ZEC gets $1.7 b (US17 m) to prepare for 2023 elections - without reforms, it criminal waste of money N Garikai

 “The $1,744 billion allocated in the 2021 National Budget by Treasury to allow the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to conduct the delimitation exercise ahead of the 2023 harmonised elections, has been describe as grossly inadequate,” reported Zimeye.

“However, legislators (Parliament’s portfolio committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs) have called for more budgetary support for the exercise, which requires about $8,6 billion.”

This government has not implemented even one democratic reform since the rigged 2018 elections and there is nothing to suggest it has any intention of doing so in the future. With no reforms, the 2023 elections will marred by the same flaws, irregularities and illegalities noted in the 2018 elections and, before that, the 2013 elections. This is just another expensive but utterly meaningless rituals!

Last January the MP for Chiredzi South constituency revealed that the best performing schools in the grade 7, form 2, “O” and “A” level examination posted 3% pass rate and the great majority had 0%. Most rural schools had very similar results.

Zimbabwe’s education standards did not fall to this over one or two years; this has taken decades - a reflection of decades of under invest. And yet year after year parents have send their children to school knowing fully well the children will learn very little, as the school results showed! 

The 2020 corona virus pandemic has disrupted education the world over, including Zimbabwe. Whilst the rest of the world has made a concerted effort to make sure students made up for lost time, our attempts to do the same have largely come to naught. 

As soon as the schools and colleges reopened leaners found there were no teachers. The teachers went on strike; taking up from where they left off before the corona virus shut down. They are demanding a living wage and not the US$50 or so per month when the PDL is pegged at US$650.  

This government is squandering $1.7 billion (US$ 17 million); the same again in 2022 and ten times that, at least, in 2023; preparing for the 2023 elections. This is just a criminal waste of money; we already know the elections will be rigged! 

I would rather government pay the teachers a living wage than waste the money on yet another mockery elections. 

Reviving the economy is a Herculean task and Zanu PF is will never do it - desperately need change P Guramatunhu

“What democratic changes has MDC accomplished ever since the party’s formation in 1999?”

An innocent question which any MDC leader and supporter would have welcome as an opportunity to boast of the party’s many achievements. In this case, it is a question very MDC members dreads - the party has failed to bring about even one democratic change in 20 years. Not one!

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.” said USA President Abraham Lincoln. 

After 20 years, 5 of which in the GNU, and nothing to show for it; it is no exaggeration that MDC leaders are now finding they can no longer fool even some of their most naive and gullible supporters. 

The people of Zimbabwe have risk life and limb to elect first Morgan Tsvangirai and now Nelson Chamisa and his MDC colleagues on the understanding the party will deliver the democratic changes the nation was dying for. The holding of free, fair and credible elections has become the epitome of the democratic changes. 

It is true that the overwhelming majority of ordinary Zimbabweans did not have a clue what these democratic changes were the nation was dying for much less how they were to be implemented. Still, they believed Tsvangirai and company knew what the reforms were, how they would be implemented, etc. 

The people believed MDC was, the movement for democratic change, as the party name implied. “As it says on the tin!” as the salesman would say. 

Most people were not alarmed that MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform during the 2008 to 2013 when they had the golden opportunity to do so. They did not understanding what was going on then and many still don’t understand to this day. 

However, what everybody understands is that Zanu PF is still in power, the regime has continued to rig elections and their lives is still hell-on-earth. You can fool the blind colour of rice but not on the hot chilli! 

Zimbabweans know MDC has failed to deliver any meaningful democratic changes to stop Zanu PF rigging elections. 

“MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging elections!” Chamisa assured the nation before the July 2018 elections. The people had no clue what the measures were, nor did that really matter; what mattered is none of the measures worked!

Chamisa has been promising “to stop the 2023 elections until comprehensive reforms are implemented to end disputed elections.” Even the most adamant Chamisa supporters know this is just hot air, the party will participate in the 2023 elections even with not even one token reform implemented. 

It is not just that MDC have failed to bring about any democratic changes in the last 20 years but that things are getting worse. If this was a physical journey, then we have been going in the wrong direction. 

On the economic front, the last 20 years has seen the economy sink deeper and deeper into trouble, education and health care services have completely collapsed, million of our people now live in abject poverty and despair. 

The corona virus pandemic has hit hard every nation on earth; economic recovery will be a hard slog lasting five to ten years. For a country like Zimbabwe whose economy and health services were already in a total mess, corona virus has crashed the nation; economic recover will be a truly Herculean task. 

If the nation was in desperate need for meaningful political change to end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance 20 years ago; well the country’s desperation has increased a thousand times! If 20 years ago, the need was to save the people from their long economic suffering today it is to save lives. 

In 1980 Zanu PF inherited a country with one of the most robust and promising economies in independent Africa. “A jewel, look after it,” the late Tanzania President Julius Nyerere told Mugabe at the time. Zimbabwe’s economic decline started there and then and has been relentless rat race to the bottom. 

Before independence Zimbabwe produced enough food for her own people with surplus to be the breadbasket of the region. Not anymore! We are starving in what, for all intend and purposes is the Garden of Eden - a damning indictment to Zanu PF corruption and incompetency. 

Zanu PF cannot revive the country’s economy given the sorry state the country is in right now. If the regime dragged us into this hell started from a sound economic base what hope is there for it to do so starting from nothing! 

To save the country from the ravages of the economic meltdown, made even worse by the corona virus, Zanu PF must go. No if, no but! But, unless we replace MDC, Chamisa et al are not going to perform any miracle and deliver change, we are stuck with Zanu PF. 

5 killed in Ghana election violence - pray not slipping backwards to join likes of Zimbabwe N Garikai

 For many years now, Ghana has successfully held free, fair and credible elections, a successful and stable democracy. And the country has benefited greatly for with stable and functioning democracy the nation has stamped out corruption and mismanagement, the scourge behind the criminal waste of human and material resources in many countries in Africa. 

Ghana’s working and functioning democracy was an example for other African countries to follow; a lighthouse in the black stormy night, a beckon of hope. Reports of violence and vote rigging in this week’s elections has everyone holding his/her breath - has the flickering light been extinguished!

“Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo has been re-elected after a tightly contested election on Monday,” reported BBC.

“Mr Akufo-Addo obtained 51.6% of the vote, compared with 47.4% won by his main rival, ex-President John Mahama, official results showed.

“Mr Mahama has not yet conceded defeat. His party has rejected the results, citing alleged irregularities.”

There are reports of elections related violence and five people killed!

There are many reasons why it has been near impossible to build and sustain a healthy and functioning democratic system of government in Africa. Whilst most leaders have praised to the high heaven the importance of free, fair and credible elections when they are the outside selecting to be elected. 

However, once in power, most African leaders have, more often than not, worked tireless to undermine and corrupt the country’s democratic institutions to ensure the next elections will NOT be free, fair and credible. They have tasted power and giving it up again is simply unthinkable! 

In Zimbabwe, the nation’s first elections to usher independence were not free, fair and credible because Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies told the voters the civil would continue if Zanu PF lost the elections. So the people voted to end the war. 

And soon thereafter Mugabe launched the Gukurahundi massacre to force the late Dr Joshua Nkomo and his PF Zapu, the country’s main opposition party, to join Zanu PF. The 1987 Zanu PF and PF Zapu Unity Accord cleared the way for the imposition of the de facto one-party dictatorship that has ruled Zimbabwe for the last 40 years and counting. 

Zimbabwe had its golden opportunity during the 2008 to 2013 GNU to implement the democratic reforms and dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship. Sadly, Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends, who were entrusted the task of implementing the reforms, failed to get even one reform implemented in five years. They turned out to be breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent. 

Worst of all, Zanu PF has learnt that as long as the party allowed MDC to win a few gravy train seats, the opposition will participate in elections regardless how flawed and illegal the process happened to be. The regime failed to produce a verified voters’ roll, a legal and common sense requirement, for example and still Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A participated in the 2018 elections regardless. 

By participating in flawed and illegal elections the opposition have given the process credibility and the result legitimacy. 

And so, as things stand, Zimbabwe has no hope of ever holding free, fair and credible elections. Zanu PF has the carte blanche powers to rig elections and, by participating in the flawed elections, MDC is providing the regime with the legitimacy cover! 

Ever since the failed 2008 GNU Zanu PF and MDC have entered into a political arrangement; MDC will never implement any reforms to curtail Zanu PF dictatorial powers and will continue participating in flawed elections to give the result legitimacy. Zanu PF will rig the elections to secure 2/3 parliamentary majority and the presidency. Zanu PF will give MDC the surety of winning the remaining 1/3 of the parliamentary seats. 

Sure, this Zanu PF and MDC is a marriage of convenience and trust is in short supply as each party is always on the lookout to increase its share of the spoils of power. This is a marriage of cats, there is always going to be a lot of growling, biting and swiping with those razor sharp claws but you will always get the kittens - proof the marriage was consummated! 

This is Ghana's eighth presidential election since the adapting a new 1992 multiparty democratic constitution - after years of military rule - and most elections have been judge free, fair and credible. Zimbabwe had a new constitution in 2013, another product of the 2008 to 2013 GNU. It was just another wasted opportunity as the new constitution has failed to deliver free and fair elections. 

So given Ghana’s reputation of holding free, fair and credible elections the whole world await the reports of independent election observers to find out whether Ghana has become just another African country incapable of holding free, fair and credible elections. 

Nelson Chamisa refused to concede defeat to Mnangagwa in July 2018, just as Morgan Tsvangirai refused to do the same to Mugabe in the July 2013 elections claiming Zanu PF had rigged the elections. However, no one of substance has ever taken Chamisa and Tsvangirai serious, how can one when MDC leaders participated in the elections even without something as basic to free and fair elections as a verified voters’ roll!

In 1992 Ghana had the opportunity to reset its dysfunctional political system and it would be heartbreaking if the country is slipping back to the dark days of violent and rigged elections. In 2008 to 2013 Zimbabwe had the opportunity to reset its dysfunctional one-party dictatorship and we botched-up. 

Ghana has something to hold and cherish; we are still stuck with a corrupt and ruthless dictatorship, the 2008 GNU changed nothing!