Zimbabwe refused 1 m J&J vaccine awaiting MCAZ approval, 6 months after USA's FDA - now J&J is gold dust W Mukori

 

A few weeks ago, Zimbabwe was refused one million doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine offered through the Africa covac initiative under the pretext the country did not have the extra cold facility required to store the vaccine. Now we know the real reason was because Zimbabwe’s Medicine Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) had not approved the vaccine.

“ZIMBABWE may soon start administering the single dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine following approval by the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe,” reported Bulawayo 24.

“The authority approved the use of Johnson and Johnson last week saying the vaccine had passed quality, safety and efficacy checks.

“The American vaccine is the fifth to be approved in Zimbabwe after the Chinese Sinopharm and Sinovac, the Russian Sputnik V and the Indian Covaxin.”

Talk of someone being frivolous and facetious, MCAZ is frivolous, facetious and, worst of all, foolishly irresponsible!  

On 27^th February 2021, nearly six months ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. FDA has long since given the vaccine its full approval even after it was found to cause blood clot in very rare cases. The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the rest of the world have all approved the vaccine, all except the odd ball, MCAZ!

Of course, MCAZ does not have the technical expertise to carry out its own analysis of any vaccine trial data much less to initiate the clinical trials of its own. So, God knows what these “quality, safety and efficacy checks” are MCAZ has been carrying out and the checks were so important MCAZ could not be rushed into giving an EUA so the country can accept the offered the vaccine!

The irony is MCAZ approved the use of the Chinese vaccines long before WHO gave the vaccines the EUA. Many countries have not given the Chinese vaccines the EUA much less the full approval because the Chinese have not provided the detailed clinical trial data for peer review and verification.  

The China claimed its Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines have an efficacy of 77% plus after two doses but have not released the scientific data for verification. A leading Chinese scientist involved in the clinical trials of the vaccine has revealed the efficacy of the two vaccines is as low as 30% - a position supported by the reality on the ground.

Countries like Chile and China itself have reported of many of the people who have received the two doses of the Chinese vaccines, catching the highly contagious delta variant corona virus and going on to develop serious health problems and many have died.

Many people who had many of the WHO approved vaccines such as the Oxford/Astra and Johnson and Johnson vaccine have too caught the delta variant the important difference is that very few of they have developed serious health problems and even fewer have died.

To date, 1.4 million and 0.7 million Zimbabweans have received one vaccine jab and two jabs respectively of one or other of the two Chinese vaccines. And last month, the country took delivery of 2.5 million doses of the Chinese vaccines!

Zimbabwe is in the middle of a third wave of the corona virus in which 80% of the cases have the highly contagious delta variant. The government is reportedly ramping up its vaccination programme which, until now, has been very sluggish to say the least. The regime has promised to fully vaccinate 10 million people required to achieve herd immunity by the end of the year!

As things stand, the country will once again reject the Oxford/Astra, Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and all the other WHO approved vaccines, even if they were offered as happened with Johnson and Johnson vaccine the facetious MCAZ has not approved any of these vaccines! And so the country is going full steam ahead with its vaccination programme using the Chinese vaccines, regardless they are not so effective against the delta variant.

“Zimbabwe refused 1 m Johnson and Johnson vaccines awaiting MCAZ approval, six months after the USA’s FDA approval!” Whom are we kidding with all this facetious buffoonery!

"I'm angered wife Zanu PF grandee died a pauper" said Mliswa - how naive, we're a nation of paupers P Guramatunhu

 

Zimbabwe has come a long way in just 40 years to become a fully-fledged Banana Republic, George Orwell’s Animal Farm.

In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the pigs, the ruling elite, flouted the golden rule “All Animals are equal!” from the word go by keeping the milk and other goodies to themselves. It soon became the norm that whilst all the other animals on the farm worked like slaves, the pigs did very little work or none. When the other animals’ food rations were reduced again and again so that many were starving; the pigs had potbellies from feasting. The golden rule was doctored to read: “All animals are equal; some are more equal than others!” to reflect the reality on the ground.

Four decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness have left Zimbabwe’s economy, once upon a time robust, in ruins and left the country a Banana Republic. The economy has all but collapsed sending unemployment into the stratosphere of 90% plus, basic services such as education and health care are barely functioning and 49% of the population are now living in abject poverty.

The poverty has hit the ordinary Zimbabweans hard as the country’s Zanu PF ruling elite, the pigs in George Orwell’s allegory, creamed off the nation’s wealth to feed their own insatiable greed. The criminal waste of human and material resource is the root cause of the country’s economic meltdown, and it was a matter of time that the rising flood of poverty would soon affect the ruling elect. And the ruling elite have been squalling like pigs at the sight of a member of the ruling elite living and dying in poverty!

“In news just received I’m deeply saddened to hear of the passing of the first former First Lady, Mai Janet Banana. I’m angered by the fact she died a pauper, once again another example of Govt not looking after our National Heroes’ wives,” tweeted Mliswa, himself a former Zanu PF bigwig and now Independent MP for Norton.

“After the immense contribution her late husband made to the country, regardless of anything, she died a destitute in Luveve. I thought the 2nd Republic would address issues neglected by the 1st Republic and it’s about time we’re able to move motions in Parly to this effect.”

So, Temba Mliswa is angry about Janet Banana dying paupers has hardly ever notice the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans are born paupers, live all their days on this earth in heart breaking poverty and die paupers!

Indeed, it was this callous indifference of Zimbabwe’s ruling elite to the suffering and deaths of others that inspired Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies to ruthlessly deny the masses their freedoms and rights, including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life.

Zimbabwe is a Banana Republic, a pariah state, ruled by corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs who have remained in power these last 41 years by rigging elections. And as long as the country remains a Banana Republic (there is no difference between Mnangagwa’s so called Second Republic from Mugabe’s the First it is the same Banana Republic under a different dictator), there will be no meaningful economic recovery.

As long as nothing is done to revive the national economy then more and more Zimbabweans will be forced to live in abject poverty and die paupers; Zanu PF ruling elite including Temba Mliswa himself will not be spared the hardships of ever-rising flood of poverty.

Parliament can pass a law stipulating a king’s ransom allowance to every member of the country’s ruling elite and their family; the country broke, the ransom will never be paid! You cannot legislate prosperity, no one can; not even you Temba Mliswa.

“I’m angered by the fact Janet Banana (wife of Zanu PF ruling elite grandee) died a pauper!” So, you expect Zanu PF’s ruling elite to be born with a silver spoon in their mouth, to enjoy a pampered lifestyle of wealth and luxury and to die in a five-star hospital in a far away land (there are no such hospitals in Zimbabwe); untouched by the rising Noah flood of abject poverty sweeping the country -poverty brought on by and fuelled by the ruling elite’s unbridled greed. How naïve!

"We have a solid plan that will bring real change" claim Chamisa - 2018's stringent measures were a failure N Garikai

 "We have a SOLID Plan. There will be real change in Zimbabwe," said Nelson Chamisa, leader of MDC A. And, as usual, he would not say what the plan is for fear of Zanu PF sabotaging the plan.

The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect Chamisa and his fellow MDC friend into power on the understanding they will bring about the democratic changes the nation was denying for. MDC stands for Movement for Democratic Change!

Sadly, after 21 years since the party was launched in 1999, 5 of the years in the GNU, the party has failed to bring about even one single democratic change. Not even one change!

Chamisa said "MDC A has measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the 2018 elections!" (He did not say what these measure were because he did not want to give the game away!) We all know that Zanu PF blatantly rigged the elections and, by participating, MDC A give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.

Chamisa can keep his SOLD PLAN but it must be put into practice and stop Zanu PF rigging the 2023 elections. If the solid plan does not include stopping Zanu PF rigging the elections then MDC A must NOT participate in the  elections until reforms are implemented to stop this curse of rigged elections.

The people of Zimbabwe must never forget that MDC leaders were in fact given a solid plan to stop Zanu PF rigging elections; the primary 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) was about implementing a raft of democratic reform designed to stop a repeat of the blatant cheating and wanton violence that marred the 2008 elections. The task of implementing the reforms was left to Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends; they failed to implement even one reform in the five years of the 2008 to 2013 GNU.

When SADC leaders, who were the guarantor of the GPA, realized MDC had not implemented even one reform; they wanted the 2013 elections postponed until reforms were implemented. They told Tsvangirai and company "If you go into the elections next month, you will lose; the elections are done!" Tsvangirai and company paid no heed, Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the 2013 elections.

If anyone thought the MDC leaders had learned the lesson, Chamisa, who had taken over the leadership of the main MDC faction after Tsvangirai's death, went on to participate in the 2018 election with no reforms in place. He claimed he had "stringent measures to stop the rigging", as noted above.

Of course, the obvious thing for MDC leaders to have done during the GNU was to implement the raft of democratic reforms; they did not implement even one reform because they, no doubt, had a better plan. And ever since the GNU debacle they have participated in the 2013 and then 2018 elections against advice not to until reforms are implemented. If will be foolish for the nation to allow ourselves to be dragging into yet another meaningless election process only basis of another mystery MDC plan!

If Mr Chamisa’s plan was worth anything then it should have included elements designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the 2023 elections and Chamisa should have implemented those elements by now. It is naïve to believe the laws to allow Zimbabweans in the diaspora to vote, for example, can be passed and the process of getting them to register can be done in the remaining two years. It is exactly two years left to the 2023 elections.

If the truth be told (and it must be told) Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends did not implement even one reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU because Robert Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office; the ministerial limos, the generous salary and allowances, the US$4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc., etc. With their snouts in the feeding troughs, MDC leaders forget about the reforms for five years of the GNU!

“Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!” (MDC people have learned to enjoy the gravy train good life; they will not rock the boat!) was the shared boast in Zanu PF circles when asked why MDC leaders were not implementing any democratic reforms.

Some of the MDC leaders like David Coltart did realise that participating in the flawed elections would only give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy and yet they still participated out of greed.

“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” confessed David 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.”

Nelson Chamisa and his MDC A friends will be participating in the 2023 election knowing fully well that Zanu PF is rigging those elections and that by participating the opposition will once again give legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF. In other words, the sum total of Chamisa’s solid plan is to give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy and thus help perpetuate the dictatorship. Only Chamisa will consider that the “real change” Zimbabweans have risked life and limb for these last 21 years. 

"Entrepreneurship not politic will solve our problems" insisted Masiyiwa - nonsense, want good governance N Garikai

“Masiyiwa challenges entrepreneurs to solve problems in their communities” screamed the headline. When Strive Masiyiwa speaks, you listen and, I will hasten to add, I am not the only in that! When you are rich, Strive Masiyiwa, is filthy rich and so when he speaks even the rich and powerful sit-up and listen.

“At the beginning of the COVID pandemic in 2020, I was told that one of the biggest problems was testing for the virus,” revealed Masiyiwa, in the article.

“African countries had no access to test kits and masks (used in hospitals). We have probably already forgotten how hard it was to get them. But it was not that long ago that African governments were paying crazy prices for these things. Corruption erupted across the continent, as unscrupulous thieves moved in to take advantage. Some ministers and civil servants even joined in!

“I was asked by President Cyril Ramaphosa to solve the problem.”

Masiyiwa went on to describe how he and three other Africans went to build Africa Medical Supplies Platform, “within 6 weeks”; an eCommerce platform on which many African countries (was later expanded to include some countries in the Caribbean) pooled their orders to take advantage of bulk order and African Export Import Bank (AfriEximbank) facilitated the payments.

Well done Strive! Well done everybody!   

“Not every problem out there is screaming for a political solution. Leaders need to trust those with the right skills to step forward and help them,” concluded Masiyiwa.

“Now here is something that might surprise you: Today, the AMSP is the largest eCommerce platform in Africa by volume of products sold and by value.

“This should inspire you to go out and solve problems in your community, particularly those you complain about.”

Frankly, I for one, and the overwhelming majority of ordinary Africans, the impoverished and powerless povo; are not not inspired, not in the least!

Mr Masiyiwa it is hard enough to be a successful entrepreneur even in a country like the UK, Japan South Korea as many a citizen from the said nation will readily testify because everyone else wants the same thing – success. In the above-named countries the entrepreneur gets a leg-up; it is relative easier raise the working capital from the Bank or own resources, the country’s stable and booming economy creates many opportunities for all, etc.

In Zimbabwe and many other African countries, the entrepreneur does not get any help from anyone or anywhere. Decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have left many countries with a few ruling elite and their cronies who are filthy rich. Their appetite for looting and good life is insatiable and like all looters their criminal waste of human and material resources knows no bounds. Africa has become synonymous with such dichotomous contradiction as a nation being the breadbasket a whole region during colonial days finding itself total dependent of important food aid or face starvation after independence.

The overwhelming majority of ordinary African are wallowing in abject poverty; they do not dream of becoming an entrepreneur because they have no money, no education. They are hoping to get a job, God knows there are no employment opportunities given the economic meltdown due to decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness earning the country the pariah state label and forcing would-be investors to shy.

An entrepreneur in UK is like a salmon fish in a salmon fish-farm; there is competition for food with the fish of all sizes but there is enough for all.

In Africa most people are poor, are the kapenta fish in a pool that is shrinking fast by the day. They share the pool with catfish and crocodile and these have been joined by the herons, marabou stock, etc.; all have kapenta fish on their menu!  

The way out of the trap of poverty and hopelessness for millions of Africans is for them to find a job; they are not dreaming of becoming an entrepreneur. Anyone serious about ending poverty in Africa must therefore address the root cause of poverty – the curse of rigged elections that have allowed corrupt and incompetent leaders to remain in office.

“If I were a rich man,
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
All day long I'd biddy biddy bum.
If I were a wealthy man.
I wouldn't have to work hard.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

The most important men in town would come to fawn on me!
They would ask me to advise them,
Like a Solomon the Wise.
'If you please, Reb Tevye...'
'Pardon me, Reb Tevye...'
Posing problems that would cross a rabbi's eyes!
And it won't make one bit of difference if I answer right or wrong.
When you're rich, they think you really know!”

Chaim Topol: Fiddler on roof

Well, Topol was right, the rich can be arrogant and patronising! Mr Strive Masiyiwa you can biddy biddy bum with Africa’s Godfathers of corruption and tyrannical oppression all day every day. We must address the problem of rigged elections and bad governance because it is the root cause of why millions are wallowing in abject poverty and their ticket out of poverty. Mnangagwa and his cronies’ insatiable greed for power and wealth are the reason millions are poor and their future is grime and will remain so until we end dictatorship.

Mnangagwa and company are not special, crocodiles, whilst we, are the kapenta fish who exist for the sole purpose is to be eaten. Mnangagwa and company a mere mortal just like the rest of us, fallible just like all human being; the idea that they have the right to ride roughshod over the rest of us denying us our freedoms and rights including the right to free elections and even the right to life is an outrage.

The big issue in Zimbabwe is implementing the democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections and to pretend that the nation can thrive regardless of the criminal waste of resources by the corrupt ruling elite is nonsense. And, given the seriousness of our situation, all those who continue to champion such nonsense, must shut up! 

Zimbabwe's No: 1 known knowns; Zanu PF has already rigged 2023 and participating will give the illegal regime, legitimacy P Guramatunhu

"There are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know." That Donald Rumsfeld’s, USA Secretary of Defense, explanation on the limitations of intelligence report in February 2002.

Just over a year later, March 2003, the United States led coalition launched a war to overthrow the authoritarian government of Saddam Hussein on the basis of intelligence reports claiming Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. To this day, no weapons of mass destruction were ever found.

Fancy that, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld talked about known knowns and unknown unknowns and left out the most important of the lot; known knowns and unknowns alike all twisted and distorted for the sake of deceiving the naïve and gullible audience - lies. That is to say, people giving false narratives claiming they are based on proven facts when it is all guess work, at best, or deliberate falsehoods, at worst.

Liars are Steve Wonder’s “Misstra Know-It-All”; they will never admit they don’t know and even if they are confronted with the evidence of their mistake, they will find a scapegoat to blame for the mistake. To admit than they don’t or made a mistake is simply unthinkable, it is sacrilege!

Soon after the November 2017 military coup that booted out Robert Mugabe from office, Emmerson Mnangagwa and his cronies were out peddling the lie “Zimbabwe is open for business!” The mantra was to lure back investors who had shied away given the country’s reputation as a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs who rigged elections to stay in power.

Of course, the mantra was a lie; other than replace Mugabe and a few other Zanu PF thugs close to him – in a musical chairs game – Mnangagwa had done nothing merit the claim Zimbabwe was a “new dispensation, a Second Republic” with who investors could now return and do business. Investors are a shrewd and savvy lot, they were not to be easily fooled and so stayed away.

But, of course it is not everyone who is shrewd and savvy; indeed the world is full of the naïve and gullible, they constitute the weeds in a long neglected field!

Zimbabwe is stuck with the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF thugs because Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends wasted the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office and for five long years Tsvangirai and company were foolish enough to believe they were life-members of Zimbabwe’s ruling elite and so do not bother implementing even one democratic reform. Why dismantle the dictatorship now they were enjoying the benefit of being a member and guaranteed to continue doing so for life!

Tsvangirai and company went into the 2013 elections with no reform in place and yet still very confident they would win the elections because the MDC votes will overwhelm all Zanu PF vote rigging antics. SADC leaders warned the MDC leaders it was folly to participate in the elections with no reforms in place but the warning was ignored. Talk of some one being naïve, MDC leaders did not even have the common sense to ensure there was a verified voters’ roll; Zanu PF blatantly rigged the elections the 2013 elections and all elections thereafter.

It is already clear the 2023 elections are not going to be free and fair, Zanu has already rigged at them two years in advance! Last month Patrick Chimanasa, the Zanu PF acting National Political Commissar announced that the party will not be honouring Mnangagwa’s 2018 promise to give the 3 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote. Mnangagwa won the 2018 elections with 2.4 million votes or 50.8% of that year’s cast votes. How can the election be anything but a mockery if more voters are denied the vote than those voting for the winning candidate!

MDC leaders have been participating in these flawed and illegal elections to win the few gravy train seats Zanu PF offered as bait. At least for the few MDC leaders there is the few gravy train seats; there is absolutely nothing for the ordinary Zimbabweans freely participating in these flawed elections. (Zanu PF has reduce many Zimbabweans especially the rural folk into medial serfs beholden to the overbear Zanu PF thugs and their proxies, traditional leaders, war veterans and party’s youth militia supporter by the securocrats.)

By participating in these flawed elections, the opposition and their supporters, are giving legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF regime and are thus helping to perpetuate the Zanu PF dictatorship. God knows how many times this has been flagged up but to no avail. It is only by appreciating the scope and depths of the naivety and gullibility of Zimbabwe’s opposition and their as-faithful-as-a-dog supporters that one will understand why Zimbabwe’s democratic experiment had a still birth and why the last 40 years have been a relentless march deeper and deeper into hell.

It was the Greeks, 2 500 years ago, of Greece’s golden age, who gave mankind the Olympic Games and Democracy, government of the people for the people by the people; the two legacies have shaped mankind, help mankind understanding the world around us and, ultimately, to attain so measure of control of the world around us and not just a helpless victim of whatever chance and fate brings.

The Greeks argued that for democracy to work the people must be educated so that they are naïve and gullible and then easily conned by Zanu PF thugs or worse still follow blindly the corrupt and incompetent opposition. The comforting thing about history is that if the Greeks and many other nation after them have been able to attain the same level of education to make democracy work for them Zimbabweans should be able to do the same; it has been long in coming but that is no proof it will never happen.

By arrogantly denying 3 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote or 30% plus of the potential voters, Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 2023 elections in advance. Of course, it will be very foolish to participate in any election process whose outcome is predetermined especially when doing so gives democratic legitimacy to the flawed and illegal process. This is one KNOWN KNOWNS that every Zimbabwean out there must know and understand because both Zanu PF and MDC leaders will be out to trick voters into participate for the leaders’ selfish gain.

Just because Zanu PF trick MDC leaders not to implement even one reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU does not mean we no longer need the reforms implemented. We need free and fair elections as the guarantor of good governance and a government that is always democratically accountable to the people; we must implement all the democratic reforms to guarantee free and fair elections.

Just because MDC leaders were not up to the task of implementing the reforms does not mean there are no Zimbabweans out there who are up to the task. It does not require a team of rock scientists to know what the democratic reforms are and to implement them; just a group of individuals with common sense and the political will to get the job done.

Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because, for the past 41 years and counting, Zanu PF has rigged elections and got away with it every time. We must put an end to this by refusing to participate in the already rigged the 2023 elections and the election is declared null and void. Zimbabwe must then appoint an interim administration, a new GNU, whose primary task will be to implement all the democratic reforms and lay a solid foundation for a democratic Zimbabwe so the hard work of rebuilding the nation from the ruins Zanu PF created can finally begin!   

"Zimbabwe has 2 747 covid-19 death" - only sloth-minded believe the lie, but for how much longer W Mukori

Zimbabweans are a naive and gullible people, easily fooled; hence the reason the country is in such a mess. Indeed, in some cases as now we like to be fooled so we do not have to deal with the consequences of knowing the truth!

Only a village idiot believes Zimbabwe has had 88 415 corona virus cases and 2 747 deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic. One of the reasons why the numbers have remained very low is because the regime has not been testing for the virus even when common sense dictated it. By not testing, tracing and tracking as diligently as we should we have allowed many people with the virus to continue to mix and spread the virus.

We have found comfort in the official figures suggesting there are very few people out there with the virus and dying from it. False comfort since many more people have the virus and died than the official figures and more significantly hundreds of thousands of those who had the virus and thousands of the died would have been spared if only the nation had the common sense to demand to know the truth and due diligence in the testing!

We are a foolish and conceited people who insist on seeing what we want to see regardless of how far-fetched that happens to be from the reality.  Zimbabwe is in this hell-on-earth of our own making and we are not getting out of it by pretending everything is just fine!

The corona virus has happened at the time when Zimbabwe was already down and out after decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness making the country a Banana Republic in which nothing worked. The idea that the country has fared much, much better than countries like SA with a robust economy, working health care services, etc. is just nonsense.

SA has over 2 million corona virus cases and over 68 000 deaths and Zimbabwe, with ¼ SA’s population and an all but collapsed health care service and economy, should be faring far worse than having ¼ of SA’s cases and deaths. Instead of over 500 000 cases and 17 000 deaths; Zimbabwe, officially, has 88 415 cases and 2 747 deaths, less than 20% in each case. No wonder the Zanu PF regime has been bragging about it!

"Despite Zimbabwe's COVID-19 response being one of the best on the continent as evidenced by fewer deaths and infections as compared to other nations, for government, a single death is one too many," boasted Zimbabwe’s Minister of Information (read Propaganda), Monica Mutsvangwa.

In a way that there should be such a wide discrepancy between the official corona virus cases and the real numbers on the ground should not come as a surprise; Zanu PF ruling elite have always ridden roughshod over the masses denying them their freedoms and rights including their right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life. The testing, tracking and isolation protocol was diligently carried out to reduce any of the ruling elite getting the virus; the protocol was largely ignored when it was the life of povo at stake.

To include all the corona virus cases and deaths among the povo in the official count would have exposed the Zanu PF regime’s blundering incompetence in the handling of the pandemic and that was sacrilege.

Indeed, the first thing the Zanu PF regime soon after the outbreak of the pandemic was to ensure it alone controlled who get tested of the virus and only the official figures are released for publication. A 20-year jail sentence awaits anyone who publish anything other than the official corona virus cases and deaths.

A 20-year jail sentence for taking away Zanu PF’s bragging right that the regime’s handling of the corona virus pandemic is “one of the best on the continent” although we all know that is a lie. Worse still, this is a damned lie that has helped the virus spread more widely and faster causing more economic disruption and more human misery and deaths.

There is not one Zimbabwean out there with half a working brain who does not know that the official covid-19 cases and deaths are damned lies; they know in country of 15 million the undertakers would not be overwhelmed by 50 or so additional deaths per day over the normal. And yet the majority of Zimbabweans have elected to believe the damned lie “Zanu PF’s handling of the pandemic is one of the best on the continent” because to do otherwise will force them out of their sloth-like slumber – this, just like Zanu PF’s lying, is nothing new.

Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 2018 elections; the regime denied over 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote (more than the 2.4 million who voted for Mnangagwa), ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, etc.; and still the regime maintain the elections were legal, free, fair and credible. Zimbabweans, for the sake of maintaining their sloth-like slumber have pretended their right to free and fair elections is not a right but a privilege and so the blatant vote rigging was all water off a duck’s back.

It is true that in the long run, each nation get the government it deserves; we in Zimbabwe certainly deserve this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with the entourage of equally corrupt and useless opposition parties. Zimbabwe is in this man-made economic and political mess because for the last 41 years and counting Zimbabweans have maintained this stony indifference to criminal waste of the nation’s material and human resources, causing untold human suffering and deaths, by the country’s ruling elite. It sickens me to admit this but readily do so because it will kill me not to; it is far better to throw up, unsightly as that may be, than hold down the poison.

Mankind is a creature of reason and one does not need to be a rocket scientist to an election in which 30% plus of the electorate are denied the vote cannot be a free and fair election.  When 49% of the population is languishing in abject poverty, basic services such as education and health care have all but collapsed and the corona virus is caused heart-breaking human sufferings and deaths – far more that the official lies; surely this must force everyone out of their sloth-like slumber and demand change. Sadly, the sloth has not even stirred!

The corona virus storm is not done yet, Zimbabwe will have done very well indeed if the country was to vaccinate the 10 million herd immunity by this time next year (the regime claims it will achieve this target by end of the year, that is doubtful given it took six months to vaccinate 1 million (first dose) and 600 000 (required two doses) and so the grime-ripper has time to increase the covid-19 cases and deaths toll.

And as long as the country remains a Banana Republic governed by corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrants who are not democratically accountable to the people, the country’s relentless march deeper and deeper into this man-made hell will continue; the march will continue as long as the people remain in their sloth-like slumber. The sloth-like slumber has lasted 41 years now, only time will tell how much longer it will last? 

SA Minister made a fool of himself on BBC by denying ANC's failures and yet admit "slow response gave rioters field day" P Guramatunhu

 “The people responsible for the riots sparked by the jailing of former South African President Jacob Zuma failed in their insurrection because the ground for them was not fertile, the country’s transport minister has said,” reported BBC.

“While the government’s slow response to what was happening gave them a “field day”, they could not achieve what they wanted, Fikile Mbalula told BBC Hardtalk.

“More than 200 people died in the recent violence. It is estimated to have cost the economy in KwaZulu-Natal province alone at well over $1bn (£730m).

“South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that the riots were a "coordinated and well-planned attack".

There is no denying that former South Africa President Jacob Zuma and his supporters very much hoped that the looting and burning following his arrest would spread nationwide, not just KwaZulu -Natal and one or two other areas, making the country ungovernable, an insurrection. The majority of South African did not agree with the position that Zuma should not face the wroth of the law for defying the court order, particularly since this was over very serious corruption charges. The people certainly did not want to endorse the foolish notion that anyone is above the law especially someone implicated in serious corruption charges.

There is evidence to show that most of the people behind the looting and burning in KwaZulu-Natal and other areas were venting their anger and frustration against the government for their sorry economic situation, nothing to do with supporting Zuma. After nearly 30 years since the end of the apartheid era, in which the whites were filthy rich and the expense of the impoverished back majority; things have not changed much, other than a few ruling elite blacks who have become filthy rich the overwhelming majority of blacks are still languishing in abject poverty.

“South Africa, according to many studies, is one of the most economically equal societies in the world,” Stephen Sackur, the Hardtalk presenter, pointed out. "ANC is failing the people!"

SA’s Transport Minister, Fikile Mbalula, gave a spirited defence of the ANC, the party that has ruled since independence in 1994, economic performance; arguing the party is on track to deliver economic prosperity and should not be expected to reverse the 300 years of white colonial exploitation and oppression in three decades. The facts on the ground tell the story of decades of wasted opportunity or worse.

President Thabo Mbeki and now Cyril Ramaphosa have been mediocre leaders who have blundered from pillar to post. In this case, to mobilize the security sectors to giving the rioters “a field day”, as Minister Mbalula and President Ramaphosa himself readily admitted. The delay has costed the nation billions of Rand in lost property and infrastructure and over 200 lives.

When former President Jacob Zuma was in office, SA quickly earned the reputation as just another African country ravished by gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. Yes, the ruling party ANC finally acted and had him removed from office and is now carrying out a thorough investigation into state capture. One hopes the investigation are very thorough and the rot is stamp out.

Still the ANC was very slow in nipping misrule in the bud and the experience has damaged the country’s standing as a stable democracy, one of the few in Africa. Investors shy away from pariah state; look at Zimbabwe, the one thing all South Africans should be scared stiff of is to be another Banana Republic like Zimbabwe.

Jacob Zuma and his supporters were hoping for a nationwide revolt demanding that Jacob Zuma should not be investigated for corruption and position him as above the law, a stance that would have confirmed SA’s position as a pariah state. As much as many people are disappointed with ANC government’s failure to address the nation’s economic challenges they, nonetheless, realised that the Zuma’s supporters’ agenda was to reject rule of law and democracy; they had the good sense to know this was throwing away the baby, democracy, with the bath water.

South Africa’s democratic institutions are strong and holding; former President Zuma is still in jail, where he belongs; the country’s next elections will hold free, fair and credible; etc.

However, there is no deny the country’s democracy has, so far at least, failed to elect a competent government and deal with the country’s economic challenges; the impoverished masses are not going to wait another 300 years! The anarchist did not get much support from the impoverished masses this time but as long as millions are forced to live in abject poverty, the anarchists know they have a chance of garnering nationwide support next time.

As long as poverty rules the roost, SA will remain fertile ground for a nationwide revolt to dismantle rule of law and democracy!