Mugabe marks wasted conference day with a gimmick, plants one (1) tree - to how many cut down because of power cuts!

Mugabe planted a tree at the Elephant Hills Golf Course in Victoria Falls, to mark the National Tree Planting Day commemorations and the end of the first day of Zanu PF’s conference. The tree planting ceremony was accompanied by the usual ZBC TV live coverage, pomp and fanfare!

This is exactly what is wrong with this Mugabe dictatorship they take one step forward and the make a big song and dance about it and yet to take that one step forward they had taken ten or twenty steps back and they do not even notice it.

Take this one tree Mugabe planted for example, how many trees have been cut down up and down the country in this last month alone by people who would have preferred to use electricity but had no choice but to use wood because of ZESA power cuts. For 35 years Mugabe has twiddling his thumbs and has failed even to maintain the power stations he inherited from Ian Smith much less build new ones. The 18 hours a day power cuts is what the nation gets for the 35 years of misrule and corrupt leadership. 

To say the nation is facing serious an economic crisis is to understate the problem; unemployment has soared to 90% plus; millions of Zimbabwe are so poor they cannot afford one decent meal a day. And we know where poverty and hunger are found, disease and death are there too. 

Mugabe rigged the 2013 elections to impose himself and his cronies on this nation. The tyrant flies hundreds of his cronies from every corner of the country at great national expense - because directly through taxes or indirectly through looted nation wealth it is the ordinary Zimbabwean who will pay the bill for this jamboree. 

The nation had hope the regime would use the occasion to discuss the economic crisis. Instead the tyrant spends the whole day yapping about the factional fighting in his party. And, not one to miss a photo opportunity, plants a tree. And the mob retires to a sizzling bbq, cold beer and imported wines and the traditional singing and dancing - to celebrate the one step forward hundred steps back! 

Zimbabweans must now stop and take in the seriousness of our economic situation, people are dying like flies; and then take in the political reality that for all his silver back chest drumming Mugabe does not have a clue how to get the nation out of this mess. The only way out is for the nation to implement the 2008 GPA democratic reforms necessary to stop vote rigging and hold fresh free, fair and credible elections. 

The situation is now urgent because with each passing day hundreds of innocent Zimbabwean lives are being lost unnecessarily. Mugabe and his gimmicks on one step forward and then ten steps back have landed us in this mess; more of these gimmicks will only take us even deeper into this hell-on-earth! 

Zim's economic hell will test the metal of the nation and it is not Mugabe, Mujuru or Tsvangirai who will get us out!

It is very tragic that this nation should now find itself in this tragic situation of serious economic meltdown resulting in collapse of all basic services and forcing millions of our people out of work and into a life of abject poverty, many cannot afford even one decent meal a day.

Before independence Zimbabwe was the Garden of Eden, producing enough food to feed the nation and the region plus millions of dollars’ worth of cash crops like tobacco. Zimbabwe was in the top four producers and export of quality tobacco in the whole world. Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector completely collapsed in 2000 following the seizure of the white owned farms in a racist move fired by Mugabe’s deep seated inferiority complex and to gratify his own insatiable greed for wealth and those of Zanu PF cronies.

In the day and age when others have made deserts bloom, we in Zimbabwe are starving in the Garden of Eden – the greatest testimonial of Mugabe and Zanu PF breath-taking incompetency.

The nation has found itself in this pathetic situation on economic collapse because of the nation’s intractable political paralysis. Even now with the nation tittering on the edge of the abyss both the ruling party, Zanu PF, and the opposition MDC are each tearing themselves apart in internal factional wars; forcing them divide and subdivide like an amoeba; and yet remain oblivious of the dangerous situation their failed leadership is dragging the nation into.

MDC had their best chance to save this nation from the tragedy of corrupt and tyrannical rule of Mugabe during GNU; they wasted it by failing to implement even one of the raft of democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA). I find it infuriating that MDC leaders like Eddie Cross have never owned up to their betrayal of the nation and instead even have the chutzpah to deny responsibility by falsifying the historic facts.

“At that time there was also some hope that the political situation would change after MDC won the 2008 elections and Mugabe was forced by regional leaders to go into a GNU with their hated opposition. Had South Africa stepped into the ring in 2008 and insisted on a real transfer of power to the MDC, I have no doubt at all that today we would be in the throes of a rapidly developing economy with rising incomes,” wrote Eddie Cross in one of his latest epistles.

“These are all reflections of failed national leadership and the inability of continental and regional leaders to pursue policies and strategies or even to take decisions on key issues is simply astounding. We can pass decent Constitutions that include many features that the US “Founding Fathers” would have been totally comfortable with.”

There is no doubt that the GPA and the GNU that followed could have been better formulated. The USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGee, at the time compared the GPA to Swiss cheese “with holes so big one can drive a truck through”. There is no doubt that the Americans warned the MDC of their concerns but, in what would become the norm for MDC leaders, no one listened. So it is rich for any MDC leader of the shortcomings of the GNU, especially senior members like MP Cross who played their part in accepted the arrangement.

Even within the constraints of the GNU MDC could have implemented all the GPA reforms; no one would ever dispute that! SADC, especially SA’s Lindiwe Zulu, reminded MDC leaders to implement the reforms repeatedly and on the eleventh hour warned MDC not to take part in the July 2013 without the reforms but MDC paid no heed. Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, MP Cross’s fellow MDC leader before first post-elections MDC amoeba division, has since admitted MDC was warned and ignored the warns. MP Cross has yet to admit this although he has written many epistles since; he has either deliberately ignored the key historic facts during the GNU or falsified history to absolve himself and his fellow MDC leaders of any responsibility of what happened.

“We can pass decent Constitutions that include many features that the US “Founding Fathers” would have been totally comfortable with,” boosted the self-righteous Eddie Cross.

Yes Mr Cross, MDC could have given this nation a decent democratic constitution in March 2013 instead of the rubbish you lot produced.

One of the single idea America’s founding fathers bequeathed to the nation and the world at large is that presidents must serve a fixed maximum two terms. Zimbabwe’s March 2013 constitution, which Eddie Cross now pretends is a master piece, has been so loosely worded that Mugabe was able to disregard it with the greatest of ease. Mr Cross can hardly complain as his own MDC-T party leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, has done the same to extend his stay in power beyond the maximum two terms.

Zimbabwe is in a political and economic hell-hole, how to get out is the challenge. It is utterly pointless to look to Mugabe, Mnangagwa, Mujuru or any of the other former Zanu PF thugs purged out of the party last year or in the past; they will never get us out. They are the ones who got us into this hole in the first place because they are corrupt, incompetent and oppressive tyrants.

Mugabe, Mnangagwa, Mujuru, etc. are fighting each other to the death not to end the looting, brutal political oppression and vote rigging but for ownership and control the dictatorship. If Mujuru was to win the next elections her top priority will be to remove Mugabe loyalists in all the State Institutions and appoint those who will serve her with the same blind loyalty as their predecessors had shown to Mugabe. She will never concede to the GPA reforms designed to dismantle the dictatorship.

Those who are exited at the prospect of Mujuru launching her People First party because they just want Mugabe defeated are missing a trick. We should not be seeking the demise of the one man Mugabe – good as that may be – but rather the demise of the whole one party dictatorship political ethos. The Zanu PF dictatorship is a lot more that Mugabe and the few in Joint Operation Command; they are nothing but the ears of the hippo above the muddy water.

We should not look to Mr Cross, Morgan Tsvangirai and the rest of the MDC leaders to get us out of the hell-hole either; they could have done so during the GNU but failed because they sold out. There is no reason to believe they would not do so again if they ever got back into power. Indeed they are tripping over each other to join forces with Joice Mujuru not because Mujuru has reformed but because she offers them the best chance of getting back into power.

It is events that test the true metal of an individual or nation’s character; the political paralysis and economic meltdown Zimbabwe is going through is going to test this nation. The majority of our people have accepted this subservient role who have suffered the consequences of misrule but are completely helpless to change anything. Our way out of this hell is for the people to snap out of this comatose mental state and assume their citizen role of taking full responsibility of the nation’s mess and finding the solution out.

When all is said and done Zimbabwe is in this political and economic hell because for the last 35 years our people have followed blindly like sheep first the corrupt and murderous Mugabe and then the corrupt and incompetent Tsvangirai. We need a nation with people who can think for themselves and if the economic hardships of the months ahead are not going to force Zimbabweans to put their thinking caps on then it will be because they never have the caps! 

Free and fair elections is Zim's big issue and without visionary leaders it will remain so for 100 years!

There are defining moments in a nation’s history and students of history will tell us these moments are outstanding for one or both of the following reasons:

·      1)   Visionary leader able to pick out the single most important, urgent and critical issue – the big issue of the generation – out of the many other issues clamouring for attention

·      2)   Having picked the big issue, the leader must have the patience and perseverance to see the task through in the face of all the temptations to go for the short cuts or, worse, to give up.

Abraham Lincoln’s America and post independent Zimbabwe have each had defining moments in the two countries’ history with two completely different outcomes; the former had a visionary leader in President Lincoln and the later a “flawed and indecisive character” as Chris Dell, former USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe, so aptly described Tsvangirai.  

“To end the scourge of slavery and the suffering of millions living in bondage today and millions more yet to be born for all time by a constitutional measure,” is how US President Abraham Lincoln described the big issue of his generation. Lincoln argued that America would never prosper “half slave and half free”.

When President Lincoln was pushing for what is now the 13^th Amendment to the American constitution, abolishing slavery, some people argued at the time that he should focus on end the civil war. The Civil War was in its second years and many lives and resources had been lost already. The temptation to drop the slavery issue like a hot potato was enormous; the breakaway Southern States were keen to end the war and re-join the Union provided they were allowed to keep their slaves. Ending the war offered a very attractive bolt hole.

President Lincoln decided to stay the course and abolish slavery. He argued that ending the war without abolishing slavery would be a betrayal all the sacrifice the nation had made in human suffering, human lives, money and resources to afford this unique opportunity to deal decisively with this thorny issue of slavery.

On 31 January 1865 the US Congress passed the 13 th Amendment abolishing slavery and slave trade in north America and the rest of the world was soon to follow America’s lead. Abraham Lincoln seized the moment and changed the course of history of not just the United State of America but of the world, especially those nations that had the cursed honour of supplying the slaves!

Ever since Zimbabwe attained her independence in 1980 the country has been on a steady path of economic decline. Today after 35 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption, the economy is in total economic meltdown. Unemployment has soared to nauseating heights of 90%; a nation that exported food before independence is now dependent on food imports, we are starving in the “Garden of Eden”; millions are now living in abject poverty; etc.

Where there is poverty and hunger, disease and death are there also.

Life expectancy, the qualitative and quantitative measure of the nation’s standard of living, has plummeted from 68 years in 1980 to 34 years in 2004 when it was last measured. Today it is a lot worse and, unless something is done quickly, it is set to get a lot worse as the ruling party Zanu PF has given up on economic recovery.

It is not that the nation has been fast asleep and was not aware of the economic decline; the people were aware of the decline, at least by the late 1990s they would have been aware even sooner if there had been free flow of information. All the people’s efforts to change the regime, which is what one would do given the economic decline was due to misrule by Mugabe and his cronies, have come to naught because Zimbabwe is a de facto one party dictatorship.

Mugabe has denies the people their basic freedoms and human rights including to right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life to establish and sustain his one party dictatorship. He has become expert in all manner of vote rigging dirty tricks including murder to maintain his no-regime-change mantra.

The one big issue in Zimbabwe for the last 35 years is simple enough – to restore the people’s freedoms and human rights including the right free, fair and credible elections.

We should have never got into this mess if Mugabe and his cronies had not betrayed the nation by hijacking the revolution to create this corrupt, murderous and tyrannical regime. We should have had free, fair and credible elections from day one!

Zimbabwe’s big issue is simple and clear enough to most people but clearly not to those tasked to deliver the free, fair and credible elections – Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends. MDC MPs were first elected in 2000 on a ticket to deliver democratic change but have failed in spite of the many chances to do so.

The best chance for MDC to deliver free and fair elections was at the end of the 2008 to 2009 GNU. Following the wanton violence of the 2008 elections, SADC forced Mugabe to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement which stipulated a raft of democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship to ensure the next elections will be free, fair and credible. MDC was tasked to propose the reforms and have them passed by parliament – MDC should have had no problem in this since they had the majority in parliament.

Tsvangirai and his MDC friends did not table even one single proposed democratic reform in parliament. Mugabe bribed them with the gravy train lifestyles plus the $4 million Highlands mansion for Tsvangirai; in returned they kicked the reforms into the tall grass.

SADC leaders reminded Tsvangirai and his friends about the need to implement the reforms but to no avail. SADC leaders warned MDC leaders of the folly of taking part in the 2013 elections with no reforms in place but again their warning fell on ears paid well to hear nothing.

Mugabe and Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the 2013 elections. The regime has since continued with is gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and to impose its oppressive lawlessness resulting in the accelerated economic meltdown. 

    

Ever since the rigged 2013 elections Tsvangirai and his MDC friends have since come round to accepting that Zimbabwe needs to implement reforms if the nation is ever hold free, fair and credible elections. But instead of reverting to the original 2008 GPA reforms Tsvangirai is proposing wishy-washy electoral reforms because MDC has a better chance of forcing Mugabe to implement these reforms than the tougher original reforms precisely because Mugabe will still have his vote-rigging machine intact.

Tsvangirai’s electoral law reforms have already been ruled “inadequate and incomplete” by Veritas, a Zimbabwean think tank on legal matters. He knows that these reforms will accomplish nothing but he is pushing for them because he wants to be seen as doing something about implementing the reforms.

Since the GPA expired at the end of the GNU SADC cannot pressure Mugabe to implement the GPA reforms; Zimbabweans will have to find the pressure points on Mugabe. The worsening economic situation and the on-going dog-eat-dog infighting in Zanu PF have weakened Mugabe making him more susceptible to accepting change.

A united voice demanding free, fair and credible elections will force Mugabe to accept that there is no other way out. A dithering and confused opposition which does not know which is the nation’s big issue much less how to resolve it is a blessing to a tyrant like Mugabe and a curse to the nation.

If we accept Tsvangirai’s electoral reforms then the nation will be implement more and more of these reforms 100 years from now and still be no nearer to holding free, fair and credible elections than we are today. The demand for free, fair and credible elections will be the big issue for generations more of Zimbabweans to come!

Mahofa evoke the Mugabe is infallible mentality of Muzenda - she still fails to see the tragedy of it all!

According to update by state run Herald, Mahofa said "She says before (Simon) Muzenda's death she went to visit him in hospital along with Hungwe and were told to remain united.

"We promise you in the presence of the VP is that what President Mugabe wants is what will be done in Masvingo province....understand today Kasukuwere as the commissar that whatever you bring to the province as long as it has the President's blessing you will have Masvingo province's support.”

This is the Simon Muzenda mentality, “what President Mugabe wants is what will be done”, is what has got Zimbabwe into this hell-hole. To these Zanu PF simpletons being united has become synonymous with accepting whatever Mugabe says without question. To them Mugabe is infallible!

Mugabe is not some demigod whose “wants” are infinite wisdom not to be questioned by mere mortals.

Mugabe has turned out to be a corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrant who has brought economic ruin to the nation and has terrorized and murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans to establish and retain his de facto one party dictatorship.

After 35 years of this corrupt and tyrannical Mugabe rule the evidence of his failure are there for all to see; everything is in an advance state of rot and decay and millions of our people now live in abject poverty they cannot afford even one decent meal a day. That anyone much less someone in a position of power and authority like Minister Mahofa should still Mugabe a demigod whose “wants” are still to be blindly obeyed goes to show just Zanu PF has become a party of brainwashed morons.

Some people have resigned themselves to the corrupt, chaotic and tragic situation Mugabe has landed Zimbabwe in and have placed all their hopes on things changing for the better the day he dies. Mahofa’s utterance shows that Mugabe’s death will change nothing; Zanu PF is a party of minions who are totally blind to the tragic reality before their own eyes. The only reality they know is the infallibility of their demigod Mugabe; if he dies they will have another just as corrupt, incompetent and oppressive!  

Zimbabweans must renew their resolve and determination to have the GPA reforms implemented followed by the holding of free, fair and credible elections; this is the only sure way of the country ending this political culture of elevating leaders to the level of demigods whose words and actions are never to be questioned! 

To beat Mugabe we must implement the reforms and not be fooled by Mutasa, a dumped passenger.

From the everyday Mugabe signed the Global Political Agreement (GPA) in 2008 committing him and Zanu PF to accepting democratic reform the next national elections were as good as won for Tsvangirai and his MDC friends. Sadly MDC went on to lose the July 2013 elections because they became excitable, confident they will win the elections and took their eyes off the ball - implementing the raft of GPA democratic reforms to ensure the elections were free, fair and credible. MDC failed to get even one reform implemented in five years of the GNU.

With not even one reform implemented Mugabe went on to blatantly rig the elections and the rest is history.

History has the habit of repeating itself; Zimbabwe’s opposition; such as they are, a bunch of corrupt and incompetent riff-ruffs; can nonetheless still go on to win the next elections if only they could their eyes on the ball this time. We still need to have the GPA reform implemented. Sadly the opposition is not just corrupt and incompetent but they are a very easily excitable lot; keeping they eyes on the ball is proving mission impossible!

“The post-congress Zanu PF is consumed by its vicious factional and succession wars and the economy is in free-fall as Cabinet ministers commit themselves more to party business rather than bread and butter issues,” the very excited Didymus Mutasa told the Daily News.

“If ever there was a time for Zimbabweans to take them on, it is now.”

Yes it is true that Zanu PF being torn up in these succession-factional wars on the one hand. Whilst on the country’s worsening economic situation on the other hand is making the party less and less electable. Ever since Mugabe failed to get anyone to bankroll his $27 billion ZimAsset recovery plan he has clearly given up on reviving the economy. Still the opposition would be making a big mistake to assume Zanu PF is out of the race because of these two events, important as they are.

The opposition should take advantage of the weakened Zanu PF and the worsening economic situation to demand that the party accept the implementation of the GPA reforms. A united opposition can force Mugabe to accept reforms because even he would know that he has only two hands and they are full right now and therefore it would be most unwise to take on a third one.

If Mugabe is allowed to go into the next elections with no reforms implemented again then he will clearly have the chance of rigging them again.

Some people have argued that Mujuru, Mutasa and the rest in People First know how Mugabe has rigged elections in the past and they will stop him doing it again this time. Whilst it is true that the likes of Mujuru knew Mugabe was rigging elections I bet she does not know any details.

The ease with which Mujuru and her supporters were booted out of the party last year shows these were just passengers on the gravy train whom Mugabe and the small cliché that have ruled the party and country had allowed to come along for the ride. When the passengers started to be a nuisance, demanding that they too be allowed to be the train drivers, Mugabe kicked the lot off the train.

For all their 34 years in power Mujuru and her supporters have never exercised real political power; they still do not know whether the train was a coal-fired, diesel, electrical or whatever!

“Zanu was much more inclined to being ruled by small group at the top and to not permit debate within its ranks,” said Cephas Msipa in his book In Pursuit of Freedom and Justice: A Memoir. He was right on the money!

Mugabe and his small group, the Joint Operation Command (JOC), composed of the top brass in the Police, Army, CIO, Prison Service, a few others co-opted into the group headed by Mugabe himself assisted by Mnangagwa. To successful rig the elections a few more people were brought into the loop to carryout various tasks without ever be told any details other than the bear minimum to get the job done.

Whilst the rest of the nation is impoverish with central government so starved of cash the Minister of Finance is struggling to pay civil servant wages let alone pay for everything else, JOC is drowning in cash. According to Partnership Africa, Canada, Mugabe pocketed at least $2 billion from his share of the looting taking place in Marange in 2012 alone. The other members of JOC are the other holders of the remaining concessions.

Minister of Finance during the GNU, Tendai Biti, complained that government was not getting all the due tax revenue from Marange, he got $400 million instead of the expected $900 million or so. Since Zanu PF took over complete control again at the end of the GNU tax revenue into government coffers from Marange have since completely dried up. Biti accused Mugabe of running a parallel government with its own source of funds.

“During the government of national unity in Zimbabwe, Zanu PF beat the MDC to the announcement by alleging that it was running a parallel government,” wrote Japanese researcher Ken Yamamoto in his most recent article on Zimbabwe. “The fact of the matter was that Zanu PF was running a parallel government, on the back of murky transactions with Sam Pa.

“Pa set up a Sino-Zimbabwe Development company (Sino-Zim), a joint-venture with Zimbabwe’s CIO, fronted by Happyton Bonyongwe. One of their key transactions was to buy a building in downtown Harare along Samora Machel Avenue known as Livingstone House, formerly owned by Old Mutual. This is where Zimbabwe’s Ministry of ICT is housed.

“Sino-Zim dabbled in many operations ranging from cotton to mining to financing parallel Zanu PF operations in government to buying goodies for the CIO. But most importantly, Sam Pa bought vehicles for the CIO, funded Zanu PF’s elections including buying millions of Mugabe-branded giveaways and farming inputs Mugabe dished out ahead of the 2013 elections. Emmerson Munangagwa, prior to Zimbabwe’s election in 2013, travelled to Angola, and brought back one million dollars in cash to fund elections contrary state laws, courtesy of China-Sonangol, a Sam Pa creation.” For the full article see The Zimbabwean, Yamamoto: Chinese leader’s visit – the dots.

 So JOC has plenty of cash, come the elections, to pay for the usual hired crowds bussed from one rally to the next; to pay for the bussed multiple voters; to pay NIKUV another $10 million to corrupt the voters roll; buy all Zanu PF candidate brand new vehicles; etc.

Even if the electorate should come out with a cast iron determination to vote Zanu PF as a result of the worsening economic hardship as happened in 2008. Tsvangirai failed to “win” the presidency then because the ever resourceful Mugabe showed that even if the opponent has received an overwhelming number of cast votes one can still win if those tasked to count the votes know what the result must beforehand.

ZEC took five weeks to count 4 million votes, the finished the actual counting in less than a day they used the rest of the time “cooking” the result.

The 2008 GPA reforms included ZEC reforms so that the commissioners are independent and will count the cast votes; reforms to the Police so that they will arrest those who commit political violence; the funding of all political parties and their activities are transparent and open to public scrutiny; etc. This is what free, fair and credible elections is about and that is what the opposition should be demanding.

Telling the very excitable Tsvangirai to keep his eyes on implementing the reforms during the GNU proved to be mission impossible. He has learnt nothing because he just as excitable this time round. Unless we implement all the 2008 GPA democratic reforms in full Mugabe and Zanu PF will still “win” the next elections. Mujuru and her People First team were passengers on the Zanu PF gravy train, the train did not stop because it “baby dumped” noisy passengers! 

Last year Oppah helped Grace "baby dump" Mujuru she has since scolded into tears for her reward.

President Mugabe is not the only one who is being bullied around by his wife Grace, she has all the bigwigs in Zanu PF on the cosh! Look at the large of senior party leaders have been attending her meet-the-people rallies, all groveling to please her?

Party minions like Joseph Chinotimba and Minister Shuvai Mahofa have been dancing before her as if they are possessed. When the former stopped to catch a breath Grace was not displeased and asked him if he not pleased. Mahofa did not want to risk a similar reprimand and so she danced until she passed out, there is only so much a 75 year old can physically take.

Shuvai Mahofa was rewarded for her vigorous dancing - she is a woman of no notable talent or ability, which is fine since merit counts for nothing anywhere in Zanu PF -; she was appointed the Provincial Minister of Masvingo. Her office was moved from the first floor to the ground floor because she was too old to walk up the stairs, she said.

Minister Mahofa dance before Grace as if she was possessed by a whole legion of devilish spirits; the desire to please her new found demigod, Grace, gave the minister super human strength and vigour!

Each time Grace holds one of her rallies government business grinds to a halt. Many of the ministers, deputy ministers and civil servants drop everything to attend to her. They all compete for her attention and will go the extra mile to ensure she notice them in turn. Minister Chombo was on his knees before her on one occasion, just so she noticed him.

The two VPs too have joined the rat race to impress her. Grace told a public gathering in Kadoma that the two gentlemen consults her regularly and, like school children, that they take down notes of what her tells them. It is hard to imagine her saying anything of substance worth remembering let alone worth writing down; no doubt the two VPs are taking down notes to feed her hot-air balloon size ego.

VP Mphoko has had "great honour and privilege" to introduce Grace to public at some of her rallies. Many have rightly questioned the etiquette given that she is only chairperson of the party’s women’s league and not even a minister of government. He and VP Mnangagwa are both “junior” to Grace, VP Mphoko explained; making is as clear as mud!

In their hasty to please Grace some of the Zanu PF leaders forgot that what goes round comes round. Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri was one such leader whose forgetfulness has since come back to haunt her. Last year the Minister was Grace's chief cheer leader, when the later launched her merciless but unwarranted attack of the then VP Joice Mujuru.

Grace denounced Mujuru for being lazy, corrupt and, most serious of all, plotting to assassinate President Mugabe. Few people would deny that Mujuru is lazy and corrupt but then no one in Zanu PF, much more her principle accuser, would dare cast the first stone to show they were not themselves guilty of the same charges.

Grace demanded the “baby dumping” of Mujuru and threatened that if “Baba (Mugabe) does not do it, she will!” Baba swiftly metered out the harsh punish and “baby dumped” Mujuru and many of her supporters out of the party and government. Yet a year later, none of the alleged plotters have been arrested or one iota of evidence of the assassination plot produced.

Last week Grace Mugabe attacked her chief cheer-leader in a scene reminiscent of the attack of Mujuru a year ago which left Minister Muchinguri-Kashiri in tears.

“Wakabvira kare uchindijairira ... (You have never respected me)” Grace scolded the tearful Minister at the Zanu PF politburo meeting. It should be noted that it was Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri step-down as chairperson of the women’s league give Grace the post and thus the platform to attack Mujuru. And what thanks does she get from Grace – a serious mauling from the power hungry wild-cat!

Minister Muchinguri – Kashiri should have sort Minister Jonathan Moyo, another politburo members who too has been scolded like naughty toddler and who too was reduced to tears by these Mugabe demigods!

For all his chauvinistic macho posturing, Professor Jonathan Moyo cried when Mugabe confronted him with the details of the foiled 2004 Tsholotsho coup plot. “Achema misodzo!” (He cried tears!) Mugabe boosted in triumph!

At last week’s meeting, Mugabe reportedly sat, stone faced and silent whilst his wife ranted and raved. He did not dare interrupt Grace in full flow; she publicly told him to shut up in the past, he did not want to be told so again.

Jabulani Sibanda, the war vet who until he too was booted out of the party with Mujuru last year considered himself a demigod in his own right, denounce Grace’s shameless tyranny over her husband and everyone else in Zanu PF in pursuit of the presidency a “bedroom coup!”  One does not need to be a marriage councillor to see Mugabe is now a henpecked husband.

When Grace was quite finished giving Minister Muchinguri-Kashiri the thorough tongue lashing, Mugabe too reprimanded the tearful Minister.  He admonished both Muchinguri-Kashiri and War veterans minister Christopher Mutsvangwa for flaunting their liberation war credentials to get special treatment. Look who is talking!

Here is the man who has publicly and unashamedly justified the unleashing of the 2008 wanton violence against the defenceless people, denying them a meaningful vote because only those with liberation war credentials were rule the country. “What was achieved by the bullet cannot be undone with a ballot!” Mugabe said then.

Indeed the nation has never had free and fair elections because since Zanu PF is the only party with liberation war credentials Mugabe has institute a political system designed to ensure the was no regime change regardless the people’s democratic wishes.

Mugabe has repeatedly and brazenly flaunted his liberation war credentials for the most sinister and selfish reasons with the tragic consequences of the political and economic hell the nation finds itself in today. What a cynical hypocrite; he reprimands other for the speck in their eyes which he put there but fails to see the log in his own eye!

Zimbabwe is in this political and economic hell-on-earth because we are a nation not ruled by law and reason but instead are ruled by fear and whims of a numskull tyrant – for the last few years, it has become a henpecked numskull tyrant and his brainless wild cat. If we are ever to get out of this hell then we must demand the full implementation of the 2008 GPA democratic reforms, designed to end this no-regime-change mantra. 

Economic meltdown is the force behind Grace's dogged resolve to be next president

Grace Mugabe is not just as keen as mustard, she is desperate, to succeed her husband as the next president!

"All the rallies and meet-the-people campaigns, and her so-called donations are meant to create a certain image and prepare people for the inevitable announcement of her grand political ambitions,” said Dewa Mavhinga.

"Whoever says there is no bigger plan behind Grace's whirlwind campaigns across the country is lying with a straight face. This could very well be the establishment of a Mugabe dynasty, if the people of Zimbabwe allow it." Mavhinga is spot on there.

As Zimbabwe’s First Lady, Grace has enjoyed a privileged style for decades now and therefore giving it up would not be easy for her. So she will be keen as mustard to step up on the political ladder to become president and not down and because just another minister or worse! But it is the economic consequence of her stepping down the ladder that has fired her to fight for the top job!

Zimbabwe’s very turbulent economic situation has her worried sick; she knows that she and her family will need all the help they can get to survive let alone thrive and the only sure way to get that help is for her to be president. She is absolutely desperate to be president.

Zimbabwe's economic meltdown is real and even from the comfort of the presidential limo or helicopter it is impossible not to see the rot and decay everywhere and jaded look everywhere of years of stress, poverty, hunger, hopelessness and despair. Stress, poverty, etc. used to be povo’s problems but not anymore; the ruling elite are suffering too.

It was in the papers the other day that Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri's property will be auctioned to pay off her debts. She is not the only Zanu PF Chef in financial trouble. The days of cheap bank loans, generous salaries and allowances, etc. are over and the Chefs are feeling the ill effects.

Grace Mugabe may be naive but not that naive not to know that her business interests have benefited from all direct and indirect help she has been getting because she is Mugabe's wife. In the present economic climate when the government is failing to pay PSMAS the money it has collected from members there is no doubt all the monetary subsidies to her will stop that day she seizes to be First Lady. She will well and truly on the slippery slope of stress, poverty, etc.

Even if she has money and business interests outside Zimbabwe in countries with very stable economies; she cannot be sure of holding on to her wealth in the face of the country’s deepening economic crisis. In a country that is failing to supply something as basic as clean it impossible to justify why someone should be allowed to keep their ill-got wealth whilst the people from whom the wealth was looted are forced to drink dirty water!

The only way Grace Mugabe can be sure of at least keeping a semblance of her privileged lifestyle in Zimbabwe’s chaotic and ever deepening economic crisis is by keeping Mugabe in power as long as possible and taking over from him at the next opportune moment. She has no other option.

To accomplish her objective of keeping the presidency in the family Grace has had no choice but to throw all caution to the wind and go for it, proof of just how desperate she is too be president.

Her first challenge was to muscle everyone in Zanu PF with presidential ambitions out of the way. The front runner last year was Joice Mujuru and Grace did not mess around but went straight for the jugular vein! As soon as Mujuru was booted out of the party Grace set her sight on VP Mnangagwa.

In her effort to get rid of her challengers for the presidency, Grace has forced Zanu PF papered over cracks to develop into gapping chasms. Many people have argued, with good supporting evidence, that the booting out of Mujuru has fatally damaged Zanu PF’s electoral chances of successfully rigging the next elections. Mujuru still has too many supporters, some of whom are still Zanu PF card carrying members, who are familiar with Mugabe’s vote rigging tactics for him to get away with it.

Grace has no choice but go after VP Mnangagwa too but she is only weakening Zanu PF even further.

Grace’s second challenge is winning the national vote. Even if she managed to emerge as the Zanu PF top dog, with the party unified behind her she will not be out of the wood yet. The country's worsening economic situation has brought back echoes of 2008. The people then were so desperate for change Zanu PF was forced to use wanton violence to force them to vote for Mugabe. Zanu PF will be forced to use similar extreme measures again.

History has the habit of repeating itself; if Zanu PF uses wanton violence in the next elections the whole world will, as happened in 2008, refused to accept the result as a true reflection of the democratic wishes of the people. Instead of being given the option of the GNU soft-landing Zanu PF will be forced to implement the democratic reforms followed by fresh free and fair elections.

Zimbabweans will go out of their way to make sure they vote in the fresh elections just to be absolutely sure Zanu PF is trounced!

Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is the driving force behind Grace’s desperate efforts to ensure she becomes president after Mugabe. The irony is it was the 35 years of gross mismanagement, of rampant corruption and lawlessness and greed that has triggered the economic meltdown. If economic meltdown has made Grace is desperate to be president it has made the people even more desperate to see an end to Zanu PF dictatorship.

Grace and her husband can scheme all they want, there is no way either of them will win the next elections! People will never be fooled by Grace’s political gimmick of missing her chocolate soufflé desert “in sympathy with the starving millions”; mocked sympathy will not fill an empty belly! People do not want these rally hand-outs where only a tiny number get enough for a day and starve the rest of the year. People want jobs and a future!