By trusting Mugabe to implement reforms EU is mudding muddy waters. By P Guramatunhu

“Zim re-engagement with EU anchored on respect for democratic values” screamed the headline in The Zimbabwean. The tragedy for Zimbabwe is the EU has not been a true and consist friend for the longsuffering people of Zimbabwe because the EU has revised and even ignored the “democratic values” so often the value and purpose of the anchor has been compromised and lost.

“For this country to reintegrate into the international community fully and create an environment which creates confidence for investors to come back, it is critical that these (2018) elections are peaceful and lead to an acceptable result which means that there should be a minimal level of transparency and fairness in the system. If you don’t have that you create a new cycle of instability which will scare off investors,” Ambassador Philippe Van Damme, the EU Head of Delegation to Zimbabwe told the The Zimbabwean.

“The conclusion of everybody (European investors) is always the same, they are all charmed by this country and impressed by the potential of this country but they all have the same type of concerns. The legal framework remains very uncertain.”

No thinking Zimbabwean would disagree with that. The billion-dollar question is; how do we remove a well-entrenched corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship that has corrupted every State institution and has a well-organized and well-funded vote rigging juggernaut so the country can finally hold it first ever free, fair and credible elections?

After 36 years of independence the country is nowhere near holding its first free and fair elections. Zimbabweans themselves have struggle to define what constitute free, fair and credible elections and thus agree on what democratic reforms the nation needs to implement. The EU’s policy inconsistences have not helped the people of Zimbabwe.  

“What is important is that we continue dialogue with stakeholders to see how we can entrench a democratic culture. Constitutionalism is about aligning the laws to the constitution. It is also about people being aware of the contents of the constitution and what are the fundamental rights and freedoms enshrined in the constitution and knowing what are the consequences of that to their daily lives,” said Van Damme.

This is not helping the people of Zimbabwe for two reasons:

a)     No Zimbabwean worth his/her salt has ever argued that aligning existing law with the new 2013 constitution will deliver the free, fair and credible elections because the latter is a weak and feeble constitution that has given the State president “excessive powers with no democratic checks and balances”, according to Senator David Coltart. Just because some of the country’s feeble minded opposition leaders have been calling for this realignment does not mean it is the right solution. The feeble minds failed to implement the reforms during the GNU and insisted the 2013 elections would be free and fair.

b)    Everyone else has been calling for the formation of a National Transition Authority or some such independent body to implement the democratic reforms necessary to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and the vote rigging machinery to ensure the next elections are free and fair. It is shocking that the EU is trusting the Zanu PF regime to implement the reforms.

It is no secret that the EU lifted its targeted sanctions on all the Zanu PF individuals and institutions, all except President Mugabe and his wife Grace, in 2015 not because the Union was ever under any illusions that the July 2013 elections were free and fair. The whole world saw the blatant vote rigging of bussed hooded voters, the regime stubbornly refusing to release the voters roll, etc. The sanctions were lifted out of economic consideration; Belgium, in particular, was desperate to renew trade in Zimbabwe diamonds; and so democratic values were trumped by economic consideration.

Zimbabwe is in serious economic trouble and another failed election in 2018 could send the nation tumbling over the edge into the abyss. This country cannot take any chances; the solution we want MUST deliver free, fair and credible elections.

Anyone, anyone at all, still arguing that realigning the exist laws to a weak constitution and that we should trust this Zanu PF dictatorship to preside over its own demise regime is not a true friend of the longsuffering people of Zimbabwe and must be ignored! We are looking for a way out of this hell and not for yet another quick-fix solution that will drag us even deeper into this hell!

We have the Zanu PF dictatorship being assisted by the Chinese, Israeli and other foreign nations to rig elections, on the one hand. On the other, we have a basketful of corrupt, incompetent and confused Zimbabweans who have failed to get even one reform implemented when they had the golden opportunity to do so. The last thing we want is add the EU in the mix, when all they are doing is muddy the already mudded waters.

For the umpteenth time Tsvangirai, Zanu PF will never implement reform

The trouble with Morgan Tsvangirai is he is a confused man who talks too much on a subject matter - fighting for free and fair elections, in this instance - on which he does not have the foggiest idea what he talking about. He clearly did not understand what the democratic reforms MDC was supposed to implement during the GNU were about much less how they were supposed to be implemented. Even now with the benefit of hindsight, three years after the rigged July 2013 elections, he still has no clue what the GNU was about!

“There are those who want a GNU, we are saying no to that. We are fighting for free and fair elections and not positions; we need the right conditions for elections,” Tsvangirai told his party supporters.

Let us just unpick what he has just said.

To start with, the principle task of the 2008 to 2013 GNU was that this interim administration must implement a raft of democratic reforms and write a new DEMOCRATIC constitution designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and vote rigging machinery for that the next elections will be free, fair and credible. We all know that the 31^st July 2013 elections were not free and fair – Tsvangirai admitted as much by noon of elections day and has done so again above.

So we are starting on an agreed position; that the last GNU failed to deliver free and fair elections. Why?

Zanu PF blatantly rigged the vote in July 2013; proof that there was something wrong with the implementation of the democratic reforms and/or with the new 2013 constitution because that is exactly what they were supposed to stop happening. It turns out that not even one democratic reform was implemented in five years of the GNU. As for the new constitution, it is a weak and feeble constitution a product of “horse trading” between Zanu PF and the two MDC factions, as Trevor Ncube, CEO of Alpha Media Holdings, has rightly pointed out.  It is not at all the democratic constitution the nation had been promised.

Since the July 2013 rigged elections MDC-T has promised the nation that the party will not take part in any future elections including by-elections until electoral reforms have been carried out. True to their word the party has not contested any of the by-elections since 2013. The next elections are two years away and still not even one reform has been implemented. Not a sausage!

MDC-T has maintained it will force Zanu PF to implement the reforms necessary for free and fair elections. Zanu PF has since refused to implement any reforms because being able to rig the elections is clearly in the party’s interest. Zanu PF has a clear two thirds majority in the new parliament after the rig 2013 elections and has resisted all parliamentary pressure to implement any reforms.

Even if some other pressure, the worsen economic meltdown for example, was brought to bear on Mugabe; it would be naïve to expect the Zanu PF regime to preside over the dismantling of the dictatorship design to end the party’s political domination. The pressure would be to force Zanu PF to accept the formation of an independent body that will then be tasked to implement the reforms.

Since no democratic reforms were implemented during the last GNU there is no question that we need the reforms to be implemented. We know we cannot trust Zanu PF as the government of the day to implement the reforms and so that leaves us with no other choice than finding some independent body to do it. The National Transition Authority (NTA) or GNU – the name is not important - composed of competent Zimbabweans who understand what the reforms are about and can be trusted to implement all the reforms and finally deliver free and fair election.

Tsvangirai is being very presumptuous with his assertion that he will not be is the NTA or GNU; it would be madness to allow any of the Zanu PF or MDC players involved in the failed last GNU to be in the new one. What for; they messed up the last time what is there to suggest they will not do so again.

Zimbabwe is not going to end the crippling economic meltdown and the increasing political chaos gripping the country until we implement the democratic reforms and hold free and fair elections. Zanu PF cannot be trusted to implement the reforms, it rigged the last elections and, as long as the party is allowed to rig future elections, it will remain in power and so no reforms will ever be implemented. We need the NTA to break the cycle!

Assuming that Tsvangirai understands why we need the NTA, (knowing him as I do that is assuming a lot) then the only reason he is objecting to NTA or NGU is that accepting bringing into sharp focus why the last GNU failed and his role in that failure.

For Tsvangirai to claim that he is fighting for free and fair elections and can deliver without coming up with some form of arrangement to neutralize Zanu PF’s dictatorial and vote rigging powers is as nonsensical as him claiming we can swim across the crocodile infested Zambezi River with no protection. We should concentrate on building the bridge and not waste time much less one human life listening to him!

Whether people like it or not a corrupt and incompetent individual like Emmerson Mnangagwa, Joice Mujuru and Morgan Tsvangira will never implement the democratic reforms the nation has been dying for. The first two were key players in the Mugabe team that created the corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship we are suffering under today. If we elected anyone of them back into power, they will be there to remodel the dictatorship to fit their image. The latter has already a chance to end the dictatorship but failed to do so only because Mugabe bribed him to do nothing.


By electing corrupt and incompetent leaders, even recycling leaders with a proven record of failure Zimbabweans are showing the whole world that we are not serious about wanting free and fair elections – at least, not yet!

SADC must "resolve Zim crisis" says SA Bishop - need more than kind words

"Hell is full of good meanings, but Heaven is full of good works" is an aphorism that has echoed louder and louder in Zimbabwe as the nation has sunk deeper and deeper into the economic and political hell-hole this corrupt and tyrannical Mugabe dictatorship has dragged the nation into. We can ignore it as we have done these last 36 years but we can be certain of one thing we will sink ever deeper; hell is a bottomless pit!

“In a scathing attack, (Methodist Church and proponent of human rights in South Africa) Bishop Paul Veryn castigated the Zimbabwean government for failing to respect its citizens. He said there were several South Africans willing to help Zimbabweans to find a lasting solution to its current crisis,” reported The Zimbabwean.

I agree with the Bishop 100% that there many South Africans and other nationals out there who are willing to help Zimbabwe get out of this hell-hole Mugabe landed us. The question then is: why are all these people not helping then?

Answer: people help those who help themselves. Zimbabweans have again and again not only let ourselves down, when it comes to ending the Mugabe dictatorship, but we have let down those who have invested their time, sweat and treasure to help us. This is the elephant in the room Zimbabweans, and those who really want to help us, must address or we will never get out of the hell-hole.

“Bishop Veryn said what was happening in Zimbabwe was “painful” adding that the South African government ought to act to extricate Zimbabwe from the current social, economic and political crisis,” continued the report. “He said it was critical for SADC and South Africa to act in resolving the Zimbabwean crisis as it could become a regional problem if not urgently addressed.”

If the truth be told, and it must, SADC did intervene in 2008 and it setup a template for democratic reforms which, if implemented would have ended the corrupt and tyrannical one-party cum one-man dictatorship in Zimbabwe. Not even one reform was implemented in five years of the GNU. Not one!

Zimbabwe’s opposition MDC politicians led by one Morgan Richard Tsvangirai who ironically were elected on a ticket to bring change failed to implement even one change. It turns out they were never really interested in bring about any democratic change; they just wanted to enjoy the gravy train luxury of public office which the hallmark of post-independent Zimbabwe.

SADC gave Zimbabwe the get–out-of-jail card and Tsvangirai et al traded it in for gravy train lifestyle and a $ 4 million Highlands mansion for himself!

It has since become clear that MDC leaders, including Tsvangirai himself, did not have a clue what the democratic reforms were about and even now, with the benefit of hindsight, still do not have a clue.

The ordinary people of Zimbabwe have themselves to blame for GNU failing to deliver the free, fair and credible elections because they elected the corrupt and incompetent Tsvangirai et al in the first place. Zimbabweans have never taken the task of electing competent leaders with the seriousness the matter demands. After electing a corrupt and murderous tyrant they elect a corrupt and incompetent idiot; that is being reckless and irresponsible.

Bishop Veryn is asking SADC to intervene in Zimbabwe again but to what end and purpose? If the Zimbabwean people themselves are not ready to implement the democratic reforms – by electing the same corrupt, incompetent and sell-out MDC leaders the people are it very clear that they have learnt nothing from the failed GNU – SADC can initiate another GNU but that too will result in another rigged election as happened in 2013.

“The intellectual capacity of Zimbabweans is amazing and someone up there should find a way that ensures strategic use of the human capital so that Zimbabweans are able to fend for their families while contributing to economic growth in South Africa and the region. We cannot put this human capital to waste”, said Bishop Veryn.

If we were so clever then we would not be looking to other nation to make “strategic use” of are human potential whilst our own country is going to the dogs. It is now 36 years since our independence and we yet to hold our first free, fair and credible elections – many of us cannot even agree what constitute free elections. Zimbabweans, clever; yeah right!

There is a reward for doing the right thing just as there is a price to be paid for doing the wrong thing. People get the government they deserve, after 36 years, we cannot deny that we deserve this corrupt and tyrannical Mugabe dictatorship complete with its entourage of corrupt and utterly useless opposition parties.

Bishop Paul Veryn has done a lot to help Zimbabweans in South Africa and I salute his work. But I am sure he would agree with me that we Zimbabweans have been our own worst enemies; that is the home truth we need to hear.

Zimbabwe is stuck in this hell-hole because we, the people of Zimbabwe, dozed off into a comatose like slumber soon after independence confident our political leaders will solve all our problems. When that did not happen, we expected outsiders to solve our bad governance problems without us even lifting a finger. If we are ever going to get out of the hell-hole, then we need to be told some home truth not kind words and  force us to snap out of the slumber.