Kiya kiya re-dollarisation will never end the economic meltdown not whilst Zimbabwe remains a pariah state N Garikai

When President Mnangagwa announced the scrapping of the US$ and other foreign currency as legal tender in Zimbabwe it was done as a patriotic act. The announcement was accompanied by the usual pomp ceremony, song and dance. This was few moons ago.

On Monday, 27 June 2022, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube announced the US$ was back as legal tender.

"The market lacks confidence that the multi-currency system is here to stay for the foreseeable future. To eliminate speculation and arbitrage based on this issue, the government has decided to embed the multi-currency system and the continued use of the US dollar into law for a period of five years," explained the Minister.

The announcement came as no surprise at all as the nation has been trading in the US$ for some time already given the volatility of the local currency fuelled by inflation which has nearly doubled in the last four weeks alone to 200%.

This is crisis management, “kiya kiya” as one would call it in Shona, at its chaotic worst. If it was sound economic policy to abandon the multi-currency system a few months ago, why the U-turn? What has changed?

The truth is Zimbabwe is a pariah state governed by corrupt, incompetent and lawless thugs who have been rigging elections to stay in power. It is notoriously difficult to do business in pariah state and hence the country’s economic meltdown that has lasted these last two decades and counting.

The lack of confidence in the Zimbabwe local currency, Z$, hence the soaring inflation is a symptom of the lack of confidence in the country’s economic and political system. The economy is in total meltdown and political paralysis as both the ruling party and the coterie of opposition parties have corrupt and incompetent leaders who hunger for power and wealth is insatiable.

“These people (Zanu PF regime) are taking us to depths of unfathomable economic malaise never seen in the history of our country,” remarked Tendai Biti, VP of CCC and former Minister of Finance in the 2008 to 2013 GNU. He was commenting on Minister Ncube’s statement on dollarisation.

True enough, Zanu PF dragged the nation to new depths of economic depravity as the country’s inflation soared peaking at nauseating 500 billion percent in 2008. There is fear inflation is going to rise above the present 200% as the regime’s usual vote buying schemes go into overdrive in view of the coming 2023 elections.

Tendai Biti epitomises what is wrong with Zimbabwe’s our opposition politicians – they have a knack for reminding us all how miserable we all are under Zanu PF tyrannical rule and yet have failed to carry out the important task of dismantling the Zanu PF dictatorship and, with it, end the pariah state.

Tendai Biti was the MDC-T chief negotiator in the team headed by SADC who produced the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA)that set up and tasked the 2008 to 2013 GNU to implement the raft of democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship. As MDC-T chief’s negotiator Tendai Biti, of all people, must have known about the reforms, their importance and, most important of all, how they were to be implemented.  

It is most disheartening that MDC leaders have failed to implement even one democratic reform in 22 years on the political centre stage, 5 of which in the GNU. Worse still, it is MDC/CCC leaders who are giving Zanu PF legitimacy by insisting on participating in the flawed elections against repeated advice not to.

Zanu PF’s kiya kiya re-dollarisation will not end the economic meltdown not without ending curse of rigged elections first. Sadly, neither Zanu PF nor CCC have the common sense much less the political will and vision to implement the requisite democratic reforms and guarantee the country’s first ever free, fair and credible elections.

"2013 election was so flawed, so illegal withdraw was the only logical step" - today it's only sane step P Guramatunhu

 “Zanu PF has won the Masvingo West ward 21 by-election,” reported Zimeye.

“Sources in the ward spoke of intimidation of voters and rampant rigging by Zanu PF.”

What is really infuriating is these reports of “intimidation of voters and rampant rigging by Zanu PF” are true. Chamisa and company know that Zanu PF is blatantly rigging these elections and yet they are the ones insisting on participating regardless.

It is insane to participate in an election in which even something as basic as a verified voters’ roll is missing. Why is Chamisa and company dragging the nation into such an utterly pointless election process? The answer is found in answering a similar question regarding the MDC leaders’ performance during the 2008 to 2013 GNU.

Why did MDC leaders fail to implement even one meaning democratic reform during the GNU?

“Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!” (MDC leaders have learned to enjoy the trappings of high office, they will not rock the boat!) Zanu PF cronies had boasted, answering the question.

The GNU was “the get-out-of-jail card” in terms of ending the Zanu PF dictatorship. Having wasted the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms during the GNU, MDC/CCC leaders have given up on reforms and free, fair and credible elections.

Starting with the 2013, the first post GNU elections, Chamisa and company have insisted in participating in the elections knowing fully well that Zanu PF was rigging and, even more significantly, knowing that by participating they will give Zanu PF legitimacy. They have participated regardless out of greed, as David Coltart confessed on all three points.

“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.”

Four of the main MDC factions plus three other opposition parties formed a new coalition, MDC Alliance, just before the 2018 elections. The dominance of the new coalition was self-evident as the election results showed. The issue of boycotting the 2018 elections was dismissed with claim the party had “winning in rigged election strategies”.

Chamisa and his CCC are the dominant opposition party going into the 2023 elections. Not even one token democratic reform was implemented since the 2018 rigged elections. If boycotting the elections to push for reforms before elections were the “obvious” thing to do back in 2013 it is insane to do otherwise now!

And yet; surprise, surprise; Nelson Chamisa and his CCC friends are hell bent on participating in these flawed elections, knowing doing so will give Zanu PF legitimacy out of greed. They are after the few gravy train seats Zanu PF is offering to the opposition winners and POLAD consolation bonus prices to the opposition losers.

It is a crying shame that 42 years of our independence, 2 500 years after the Greeks gave mankind democracy as the answer to a more just, fair and progressive system of government; we are not only failing to define what constitute free, fair and credible election process, we are messing around with the oxymoronic nonsense of “winning in rigged election strategies”!

Zanu PF is blatantly rigging the 2023 and according to the CCC warped political ethos of “winning in rigged election strategies”, Zanu PF has the right to rig the elections!

The Zimbabwe election process is now so flawed it is insane to participate in such process especially when doing so gives legitimacy to the vote rigging Zanu PF. We demand the implementation of the democratic reforms and the restoration of the people’s right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. And the unequivocal rejection of the nonsense that Zanu PF has the right to rig elections!

Zanu PF anti-western rhetoric is but a tacit admission they are not masters in their own home! Nomusa Garikai

 

Zimbabwe gain her independence back in 1980, marking the end of white colonial rule. But to listen to the anti-Western rhetoric from the country’s ruling elite one would be forgiven to believe the whites are calling all the shots.

The truth is we got rid of the West colonial masters only to replace them with the new Chinese and Russian masters. The Chinese and Russians supplied the arms with which to fight our western colonial oppressors. They did not supply the arms out of love for freedom, liberty and justice. They have stayed on to become the independent African countries’ new masters.

Blacks have never been masters of their own destiny and as one would expect from those with no talent have become masters at finding others to blame for our own shortcomings.

“Finally, the servant who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Master, I knew that you are a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So, I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what belongs to you.’

‘You wicked, lazy servant!’ replied his master. ‘You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed. Then you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received it back with interest. Therefore take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. But the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”

Matthew 25: 25 to 29.

If there is one passage in Bible every black African must learn by heart, this is it. If we focused on being masters of our own destiny and in making the most of what we have; we would accomplish a lot more and waste so much time and energy anti-west rhetoric just to hide our incompetence!

"SADC should rally to cushion Zimbabwe against sanctions" argued Lumumba - Zanu PF apologist masquerading as intellectual W Mukori

 

 

“I was disappointed myself when sanctions are levied against Zimbabwe, it is the people who suffer. Those in position of political power never suffer when there are sanctions,” argued Professor P L O Lumumba in recent video.

“I would have expected SADC to rally around Zimbabwe to cushion Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans against the pain that was visited against them through the sanctions. I would have expected the African Union to do the same.

“But what did we see? Tail between our legs and we leave Zimbabwe to the vagaries and manipulations and of foreign countries.”

I have always regarded Professor Lumumba as one of Africa’s intellectuals. Now I know better, he is just als aaAwaays

If people start attributing this problem to the wrong area then you come up with the wrong solution. The Zimbabwe economy was already in serious trouble long before the Western sanctions were imposed in 2001. This is well documented.

Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown started soon after the country’s independence in 1980. By 1990, just ten years after independence, the country accepted the first of the five-year Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP). The regime introduced savage social welfare cuts. “People must tighten their belts!” argued the then Minister of Finance, Dr Bernard Chidzero.

ESAP did not revive the Zimbabwe economy largely because the regime did not implement the measures to end the gross mismanagement and the rampant corruption – the real causes of the economic meltdown. In 1995 to 1999, Zanu PF signed ESAP 2. Once again the ordinary people were asked to tighten their belts whilst the ruling elite did the exact opposite – loosened their belts to accommodate the ever growing waist line!

In a interview with Travor Ncube, Dr Simba Makoni, Secretary General of SADC and Minister of Finance, revealed how Prime Minister Robert Mugabe replaced the Peugeot ministerial cars inherited from Ian Smith with Mercedes Benz. The limos were not budgeted for and Mugabe did not even bother to get cabinet approval.

The message to his fellow Zanu PF leaders was crystal clear; you stick with me and you will have all your heart’s desires – wealth, political power and influence. Mugabe had fired the starting gun to the Zanu PF political patronage system – the root cause of the mismanagement and corruption. Zanu PF has refused to admit mismanagement and corruption are the root causes of the country’s economic meltdown. The regime has blamed the sanctions imposed by the West and the root cause of the economic meltdown and the tragic human suffering it has brought.

The solution to Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown will come from addressing the country’s teething problems of mismanagement and corruption. Sanctions is just a red herring.

To deal with the mismanagement and corruption the country must first implement the democratic reform designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. If Zimbabwe was a healthy and functioning democracy, the people would have voted Zanu PF out of office a long time ago. Alas, Zimbabwe is not a democracy, Zanu PF’s four decades in power is because the party rigged the elections.

It is most disheartening that someone like Professor Lumumba fell for Zanu PF’s sanctions propaganda. Now I know, he is just a Zanu PF apologist masquerading as an intellectual!

3m plus in the diaspora are denied the vote, both Zanu PF and CCC lack political will P Guramtunhu

 Zimbabweans like to make long speeches “full of sound and fury but signifying nothing”, just to impress others. The bottom line is Zimbabweans in the diaspora will not vote next year because Zanu PF is cherry picking on who will vote and who will not!

Andrew Makoni said:  "The diaspora vote is one of the reforms being pushed alongside other reforms. Parliament has until the end of the year 2022 to agree to electoral reforms and pass the necessary law. There is still time for the electoral reforms to be made. However, it will be up to Parliament to consider the diaspora vote or not. As Zesn we have been pushing for a law allowing all citizens to exercise their right to vote despite their location," said Andrew Makoni, chairperson Zimbabwe Election Support Network (Zesn).

With a year to go before the 2023 elections there is no time to implement the reforms so that the millions in the diaspora can vote. It is the lack of political will by both Zanu PF and the opposition, not time, that is at issue here!  

In 2018, during his visit to USA for the UN General Assemble Head of State jamboree, President Mnangagwa said Zimbabweans in the diaspora will vote in the 2023 elections. It was the political right thing to say, he had just claimed electoral victory in an election process many rightly dismissed as a farce. Mnangagwa needed to earn himself some brownie points by promising the next elections will be democratic.

Last year, the then acting Zanu PF spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa announced the party will not grand diaspora vote as long as the sanctions imposed by the West on a select few Zanu PF leaders remained. A feeble excuse since the diaspora community was being punished for something they had no control over!  

Zanu PF has argued that the party will be at a disadvantage since its leaders will not travel to the Western nations because of the sanction travel restrictions. The overwhelming majority of Zimbabweans in the diaspora are in the SADC region and none of these nations have imposed sanctions on the Zanu PF leaders.

It is no secret that most of the Zimbabweans in the diaspora are economic and/or political refugees running away from the consequences of 42 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. Of course, most of these people in the diaspora are not going to vote for Zanu PF.

By denying the 3 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote, Zanu PF is cherry picking who will vote and who will not vote. This is just one of the many vote rigging tools in Zanu PF’s vote rigging juggernaut.

The 3 million diaspora voters constitute 34% of the 8.6 million potential voters (5.6 million registered voters in the 2018 elections plus 3 million in the diaspora) or 125% of Mnangagwa’s winning 2.4 million votes in the same elections. How an election process in which so many potential voters are denied the vote can ever be judged free, fair and credible beggars belief!

It is right to blame Zanu PF for Zimbabwe’s political mess but that is only half the story. The Zanu PF dictatorship would have been completely dismantled by 2013, at the latest, if Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had not turned out to be corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless. They have not only failed to implement the democratic reforms but are the ones giving vote rigging Zanu PF by insisting in participating in flawed elections against advice to implement reforms first.  

How anyone can ever judge an election process in which 34% of the potential voters are denied the vote a free, fair and credible process beggars belief.

Zanu PF has denied 3 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote, 34% of the potential electorate, because it is part and parcel of the party’s vote rigging. The party will get away with scott free thanks to the opposition who continue to participate in the elections because they believe denying 34% of the people their right to vote is not important!

When it comes to the diaspora vote, President Mnangagwa and Nelson Chamisa agree this is a privilege and not a right! As far as the two are concerned, denying the 34% in the diaspora the vote is little potato, particularly if they are the one declared the winner of the 2023 elections. It is power they are after, they only pay lip service to the notion “the mandate to rule is derived from the people in a free, fair and credible elections!”

"Win we shall! God is in it!" Chamisa claimed - Nonsense! A discerning mind, ossified into fat N Garikai

 

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

The Lord God’s greatest gift to mankind is a discerning mind and with it, mankind has achieved many things. He has split the atom to its subatomic components to reveal the workings of matter. He has left earth to gaze into the vastness of space and sense of birth and death of stars.

Alas, some people have sat on their brain, and it has ossified into fat. They are now incapable of thinking and are given to repeating the same foolish mistakes over and over again.               

“HOPE EVERYWHERE…It’s not easy to carry the hopes of all generations and the entire nation. Our parents in the rural areas are pinning their hopes on us,” wrote Nelson Chamisa, President of CCC (MDC rebranded) on Twitter.

“The task is huge. Friends, help me to pray for wisdom and strength to deliver a New Great Zimbabwe! WIN we shall! Happy Sabbath #fakapressure #Godisinit

GOKWE is an interesting place! #fakapressure.”

The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect Chamisa and his MDC friends on the understanding the party would deliver the democratic changes to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. After 22 years, 5 of which in the GNU, MDC leaders have failed to deliver even one token reform. Not one!

Why?

Chamisa and company have ignored calls from SADC, the EU, the Commonwealth and many others, for MDC to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections. Zanu PF has refused to produce a verified voters’ roll, denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote, etc.; proof the party is once again rigging these elections. Chamisa and company continue to ignore the evidence in favour of their oxymoronic belief in winning rigged elections!

After 42 years of rigged elections, history is set to repeat itself. Zanu PF will rig and win the 2023 elections. By insisting on participating in these flawed and illegal elections CCC will once again give Zanu PF legitimacy.  

“Win we shall! God is in it!” No, He is not in any of this! God is disappointed to see the tragic suffering of ordinary Zimbabwean because of decades of Zanu PF misrule and disappointed with MDC/CCC leaders’ repeated failure to end the Zanu PF dictatorship.

Nelson Chamisa and his CCC friends are hell bent on participating in these flawed and illegal elections out of ignorance, ossified brain, and greed. Zanu PF has offered a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to participate.

The message that Zanu PF is rigging the elections and that participating only gives Zanu PF legitimacy must be repeated a thousand times. No one, especially Chamisa and company must never say they did not know they are brain-dead and selling outs.  

God gave mankind a discerning mind, He would never approve His gift being wasted, ossified into fat!

Will 11 SADC leaders ask Rwanda CHOGM 2022 to lower election standard to readmit Zimbabwe? P Guramaatunhu

 Rwanda is hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2022 next week, 20 to 25 June 2022. President Mnangagwa has, no doubt, been lobbying hard for Zimbabwe to be re-admitted to the Commonwealth. The regime is notorious for spending millions of dollars on PR firms to spruce up its image even when country’s education and health care have collapsed for lack of funds.

Zimbabwe’s readmission application was rejected following the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections in 2018. The Commonwealth Election Observer Team report, like EU and many reports, gave detailed recommendation on what Zimbabwe should do to ensure future elections are free and fair.

Zanu PF has not implemented even one token reform since the rigged 2018 elections. The regime has stubbornly resisted all pressure to produce even something as basic as a verified voters’ roll.

Zanu PF is blatantly rigging the 2023 elections!

If this 2022 Rwanda CHOGM should decide to readmit Zimbabwe back into the Commonwealth it would be because the delegates had given up on Zimbabwe ever implementing the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections. And so Zimbabwe’s elections will be measured against a one-foot long yard stick as contrast to the international accept three-foot long stick! This is exactly what SADC leaders have done!

Of 19 African countries in the Commonwealth, 11 of them are also in the SADC regional grouping. Wearing their Commonwealth cap, the 11 countries endorsed the Commonwealth Election Observer team’s report led by Ghana's former president John Dramani Mahama.

"We note that important gains were made in these elections. However, the acute bias of the state media in favour of the governing party, persistent allegations of intimidation reported to the group, and the unfair use of incumbency privileges tilted the playing field in favour of the governing party (Zanu-PF),” stated the Mahama report.

"The post-election violence, which resulted in fatalities, and the behaviour of security forces marred this phase of elections. For these reasons, we are unable to endorse all aspects of the process as credible, inclusive, and peaceful."

However, when the 11 were wearing their SADC caps, they endorsed the SADC team that concluded that the same election process was “substantially free, fair and credible!” This was only possible because SADC was judging the Zimbabwe elections against a lower standard to that the Commonwealth team was using.

Of course, President Mnangagwa was eternally grateful to SADC leaders for their political endorsement and legitimacy.

The only time, in 2008, when SADC leaders joined the rest of the international community and condemned Zimbabwe’s flawed and illegal elections; Zanu PF lost political legitimacy and was forced to agree on the need to implement a raft of democratic reforms.  A Government of National Unity (GNU) was tasked to implement the reforms.

Sadly, not even one reform was implemented in five years of the GNU. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC, who were entrusted to implement the reforms turned out to be corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent. SADC leaders had nagged MDC to implement the reforms but to no avail.

SADC leaders had made one last minute bid to have Zimbabwe’s 2013 elections postponed until reforms were implemented. They told Tsvangirai and company, to their faces, “If you take part in next month’s elections, you will lose. The elections are done!”  

As we know MDC leaders, once again, paid no heed and participated in the elections. Zanu PF blatantly rigged the elections and SADC leaders, no doubt in disgruntled despair at MDC’s betrayal, turned a blind eye to the rigging and endorsed the process as “substantially free, fair and credible” giving Zanu PF legitimacy.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa is banking on the 11 SADC nations to pressure CHOGM measure Zimbabwe’s adherence to democratic values using a one-foot long yard-stick and not the universally accepted three-foot long yard-stick because Zimbabwe has failed to implement even one reform even when the country had the golden opportunity to do so!                  

It would be very foolish, to say the least, for 2022 Rwanda CHOGM to readmit Zimbabwe into the Commonwealth for three reasons:

a)      Lowering the democratic standards that have served the Commonwealth nations well will start a race to the bottom because many leaders will want the same compromised standards applied to them too. Many Commonwealth countries, notably Rwanda and Uganda, have dictators who have failed to hold free, fair and credible elections. Readmit Zimbabwe and there will be a lot more dictators in the Commonwealth.

 

b)     There are many Zimbabweans who readily accept that the 2008 to 2013 GNU was a golden opportunity for Zimbabwe to implement the democratic reforms and they condemn the MDC leaders for selling out. The Zimbabweans who continue to support MDC/CCC’s idiotic folly of “winning rigged elections” do so out of ignorance and/or desperation. Every thinking Zimbabwean accepts it is insane to participate in flawed elections out of greed for the few gravy train seats offered as bait only to give Zanu PF legitimacy. They welcome another opportunity to implement the reforms and finally get the nation out of this hell-hole.

 

c)      If Zimbabwe was readmitted, the Commonwealth will render the organisation’s own democratic standards and values irrelevant and embolden Zanu PF to rig the 2023 and future elections. 2022 Rwanda CHOGM will have condemned Zimbabwe to the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship aided by the entourage of corrupt incompetent and utterly useless opposition. Zimbabwe must not be readmitted to the Commonwealth until it implements the democratic reforms and uphold the internationally recognised democratic standards and values. That, surely, is not too much to ask!