"Give Mnangagwa long rope to hang himself," argue Masarira - Yeah Mugabe used it to hang povo

Zimbabwe is not in this political and economic mess by accident. We are where we are because we, as a people, have not stopped to think through what is it we want and hence for the last 37 years we have blundered from pillar to post. Some of our social media based protest groups have been have had their share of blundering.

“I think it’s important for us to note that there have to be a moment with which we distil what has happened before we react,” Pastor Evans Mawarire of #Thisflag told New Zimbabwe.

“It’s important for now to just respond and not necessarily react. There is still need for analysis really on which direction are these people (government) taking.”

Pastor Mawarire has never really understood what it is exactly the nation has been fighting for these last 37 years. His understanding of anything has been very superficial at best. Admittedly it is impossible to have an intelligent debate on any subject much less on politics with someone whose starting baseline is zero and stick to the 140 characters maximum twitter limit.

Pastor Mawarire’s latest blunder emanates from his failure to appreciate that the military coup that forced Mugabe to resign and in the purge of all G40 loyalists from Zanu PF had everything to do with the dog-eat-dog factional war that has been raging in that party for the last three years. The coup had nothing to do with advancing the ordinary Zimbabwean’s fight for democratic changes to restore individual freedoms and basic human rights including the right to free and fair elections.

“Operation Restore Legacy”, as the coup plotter call the coup was about stopping Mugabe handing political power to his wife Grace and her G40 faction and handing it back, restoring it, to the Joint Operation Command (JOC), the Junta comprising of security services top brass and headed by Mnangagwa and Mugabe himself until the coup. JOC has ruled the country all these last 37 years with an iron fist, it has master minders and executed all the corruption, vote rigging, tyrannical oppression and murders.

All the coup has done is effect a change of JOC leader from Mugabe to Mnangagwa otherwise nothing else has changed. It is only those who are political naïve and gullible who equate the departure of the dictator, Mugabe, with the demise of the Zanu PF dictatorship.

Mugabe lost the March 2008 elections to Tsvangirai by a staggering 73%, for example. It was Mnangagwa and the other JOC members who told the tyrant not to throw in the towel. They masterminded the six weeks recount to reduce Tsvangirai’s victory to 47% and thus force the run-off. Again, it was Mnangagwa & co. who masterminded and executed Operation “Mavhotera papi!” (Whom did you vote for!) in which the electorate were subjected to barbaric abuse and wanton violence to punish them for having voted Tsvangirai in the March vote. Mugabe won the run-off by a warping 84%.

The most immediate proof of the JOC being perfectly capable of carrying on without Mugabe, is the November coup against the tyrant. It is clear that Mugabe himself never doubted Mnangagwa & co. were capable of staging a successful coup against him because his wife told us the tyrant was “sleeping with one eye open”.

Mugabe was the figure head of JOC but one the Junta could do without when push came to shove. Mugabe was no more than the tail of the autotomy gecko, when the JOC members were threaten they forced him to resign just as readily as the gecko, captured by its tail, will shed-off the tail to make good its escape. 
    
The 2008 to 2013 GNU presented the nation a golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms necessary to restore the individual freedoms and human rights the Zanu PF dictatorship had systematically eroded away. Sadly, Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends failed to get even one reform implemented and the chance was wasted.

The dog-eat-dog infighting in Zanu PF has left the party divided and weak, other than the GNU years, the weakest it has ever been in all its 37 years in power. This is another half chance for povo to their demands to implement the democratic reforms.

“I think these are all moments which are helping us to locate ourselves in this new dispensation; how do we posture ourselves in relation to this new government, what is our messaging, what are our key concerns so far in these first 50 or 100 days as we go,” argued Mawarire.

Wait, wait for what? Wait for Zanu PF to regroup and consolidate its power? No, you hit the metal whilst it is still hot, you press for reforms whilst Zanu PF is weak!

President Mnangagwa has promised “free, fair and credible” to take people’s attention off the demands to implement reforms before elections. Of all the Zanu PF leaders, he knows all there is to know about rigging elections and why the reforms are important because he, unlike the likes of Joice Mujuru who were spectators, masterminded and executed all Zanu PF’s vote rigging schemes in the past. He wants everyone to go into next year’s elections believing the elections will be free because he said so although he has not implemented even one reform.

President Mnangagwa is aware Zanu PF is already rigging next year’s elections. As Minister of Justice, he delayed the start of the on-going voter registration knowing ZEC will not have the time release a verified voters’ roll before the elections. He also knows that many of the party’s vote rigging schemes would have been exposed if ZEC had produced a verified voters’ roll for the July 2013 elections. The party does not want a verified voters’ roll for next year’s election for the same reason.

If people are naïve enough to allow Mnangagwa to get away with yet another rigged election; he will willingly take full advantage of their naivety.  

“I think it’s still premature for protest movements to go into the streets and protest because the president has only been there for less than a month now and we have to give him a long rope to hang himself,” chipped in Linda Masarira, another human rights campaigner who heart is in the right place but, sadly, her intellect has not been sound.

“We also have to consider that he has an obligation to try and reform Zanu PF and the system per se and reform does not happen overnight.”

Madam, that is precisely the point; Mnangagwa is not even trying to reform Zanu PF. He and the JOC cabal risked life and limb to stage a coup to restore their iron grip on power; many JOC members are now in his cabinet; those thugs are not going to risk being booted out of power by allowing free election especially when they are not under any pressure to implement any democratic reforms.

President Mnangagwa is not a democrat and he and his JOC Junta have no intention of reforming themselves out of office.

We made the mistake of giving Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs a long rope in 1980 and for the last 37 years they have frog-marched the whole nation into this hell-on-earth; harassing, beating, raping and even murdered over 30 000 along the way. We must not make that mistake again.

If next year’s elections are free, fair and credible; then they will be the country’s first free and fair elections. The nation’s priority then would be to make ensure they are not the last free and fair elections by voting to end Zanu PF’s reign of terror.

If next year’s elections are NOT free, fair and credible; which is a certainty given the party has failed to implement even one reform, there will be no verified voters’ roll, etc.; this will be proof that Zanu PF is not going to change. The nation must unite and demand reform BEFORE elections. The people must have nothing to do with the flawed elections.

SADC leaders advised Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends, and through them the Zimbabwe people, not to contest the July 2013 elections with no reforms. The regional leaders accepted the futility of participating in a flawed process and then complain about it afterwards. If MDC and/or the Zimbabwe electorate had heeded SADC leaders’ advice then the regional grouping would have had no problem declaring the rigged July 2013 elections null and void.

Making sure the democratic reforms are implemented before any elections has been the number one priority on Zimbabwe’s national agenda since the 2008 rigged elections. It was foolish of the MDC leaders to take their eyes off the ball during the GNU. It equally foolish of the nation to do so again when Mugabe resigned because that, in itself, had nothing to do with implement the reforms. If anything, his resignation should have prompted us to push even harder for the reforms.

“Give Mnangagwa a long rope to hang himself,” says Masarira. We made the same mistake with Mugabe and he and his Zanu PF thugs thrived whilst we languished poverty and despair. It is insane to make the same mistake with Mnangagwa with the same team of Zanu PF thugs; they will string us up!

"Prisons not fit for human habitation," says First Lady - please spare us the sauce N Garikai

New brooms sweep clean! President Mnangagwa and his wife are certainly trying very hard to give credence to that maxim.

“First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa took a swipe at prison authorities and the Ministry In Charge of Prisons for the appalling conditions at the country’s prisons,” reported Zimeye.

“The First Lady may have quickly forgotten that her husband Emmerson Mnangagwa who is now the President was until a month ago the Minister of Justice responsible for prisons. “I visited the places where you, sleep, bath and even eat and was shocked because the place are not fit for human habitation,” said the First Lady.

“She promised the inmates in front of the prison authorities and Ministry officials who had accompanied that the conditions in the prison must be worked on and completed by end of January next year. Mrs Mnangagwa shared Christmas goodies with the 180 female inmates in the prison which also houses 15 children under the age of 12 who are staying with their mothers in the filthy conditions.”

Well, well! Instead of a new broom we have the same old broom, instead of sweeping the dirty it is raising a lot of duct to attract attention! We have a busy-body First Lady who is fishing for limelight coverage. One day she is in a hospital masquerading as a patient, the next day she is carrying a street-kid on her back and today she has been exchanging niceties with prison inmates. Promising to end all these people’s suffering; she is just getting cheap publicity at these people’s expense because she will not end their suffering.

Zimbabwe’s public institutions such as the hospitals and prisons are in a sorry state because of decades of neglect and poor funding. Decades of misrule and corruption by this Zanu PF regime has resulted in the country’s economic meltdown; compounding the ordinary people’s lives who are totally dependent on these public institutions and cannot afford anything else.

Until something is done to cure the cancers of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption, there is very little anyone can do to improve the lives of street kids, to improve funding to hospitals and prisons, etc. In turn, until something is done to stop Zanu PF rigging elections, there nothing one can do cure the nation of these cancerous tumours of mismanagement and corruption.

Zimbabwe’s economy is in serious economic meltdown because the nation is stuck these last 37 years and counting with a corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF regime that has been rigging elections to stay in power.

First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa, is a simpleton still she is, nonetheless, aware of the rampant corruption in Zimbabwe. She and her husband are part of Zimbabwe’s few filthy rich ruling elite and she is aware of the grown chasm that has opened the rich and the filthy poor majority. She knows that her husband, President Mnangagwa, is one of the richest individuals in Zimbabwe and that he was named as one of the Zimbabweans involved in the wholesale looting by Zimbabweans in DRC. Even a simpleton like her would know that filthy rich have amassed their wealth at the expense of the impoverished majority.

So, if our First Lady is serious about end the economic suffering of the poor she tackle the root cause poverty - corruption. The question she must answer is: is she ready to ask her husband to stop his looting and give up the creature comforts and luxuries it has brought?   

Instead of dealing with the nation’s problems head-on our First Lady thinks she have her cake and eat it too, keep the looting and her luxuries and end the poverty by waving a magic wand.

First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa, like her husband, has waited for 37 years to be First Lady and now that she has final achieved that position, she is relishing every second of it. Nothing would please her more than if she was to be Zimbabwe’s own Glinda, the Good Witch of the North in Wizard of Oz. Following her recent visit to one hospital; a few months later, wallah! Every hospital and clinic in Zimbabwe is spotless clean, has a full complement of qualified nurses and doctors, has nothing but the most modern equipment money can buy and has well stocked medicine cabins.

By the end of January next year, as she promised, wallah! All prisons in Zimbabwe have got rid of all their lice infested bedding and inmates are treated to a Hotel California style five course meal complete with pink champion on ice.

My prediction is none of Glinda’s wishes would ever come true and as the nation approach the next elections she would look more and more like Miss Almira Gulch, the Wicked Witch of the West. For one thing, she will be play her part all the usual dirty vote rigging tricks her husband and Zanu PF have always employed to retain power at all cost. It is simply not in the DNA of a Zanu PF Wicked Witch, male or female, to risk losing absolute power by holding free, fair and credible elections.  

Such is the insufferable arrogance of bullies and tyrants, they not only deliberately inflict all the suffering and deaths on others. The odd occasion, they are forced to acknowledge the misery of their victims; they feign shock that anyone should suffer, make a big song and dance about ending the suffering and yet promptly forget they ever made such a promise.

“Prisons are not fit for human habitation!” says Zimbabwe’s First Lady. Will you, Mrs Mnangagwa, join those demanding the implementations of the democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections? If not, then please spare us all the empty rhetoric and tomato sauce! The right to free and fair elections is not a privilege; woe to you all Zanu PF thugs who have ridden roughshod over our people’s freedoms, human rights, hopes and dreams and their very human dignity for your selfish gain!

"No interface rallies," rejoiced Gore - how pathetic is that, no wonder we stuck in this mess. W Mukori

After 37 years of one of the most corrupt oppressive and murderous regimes in modern human history that has forced ¾ of the country’s population into a life of hopelessness and despair. One would have thought that people of Zimbabwe will clear and united in wanting the dictatorship to end. It is therefore very disappointing that there are people like Victor Gore who believed “a lot has changed” and list them in Zimeye as follows:

1) no interface rallies
2) no abusing politicians by Grace Gucci
3) Road blocks are fewer
4) Bob’s face’s disappeared from the media
5) ministers now understand the word stress &unemployment
6) Grace Gucci has stopped it, hatichamunzwi.
7) Made MDC panic & fly to seek help from racist Donald Trump!

No wonder dictators like Robert Mugabe have thrived in Zimbabwe. When you have a people with such a shockingly low opinion of themselves, who have been crashed and ground into the dust all their lives and yet think nothing of it; it is easy to see why the corrupt, vote rigging and oppression will never stop.

The Zanu PF ruling elite have enjoyed absolute power, amassed wealth and enjoy lifestyles of unparalleled comfort and leisure. Last month’s coup, “Operation Restore Legacy” as the coup plotters called it, was about restoring the absolute power back in the hands of the Joint Operation Command, the Junta that has ruled the country with an iron fist all these last 37 years.

Mugabe, the leader of the Junta, had turned against the other thugs and wanted to hand over power to his wife and her G40 supporters. The rest of the Junta members had no choice but to point a gun at his temple and force the tyrant to resign. Other than that nothing else had changed, the Zanu PF thugs are still in total control and they have been flexing their muscle to punish the losing G40 leaders.

To get the national economy back on track, Zimbabwe needs to do something to end the endemic gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and to scrap all Mugabe’s foolish policies. Mnangagwa has already scrapped some of the more obvious and obnoxious laws such as the indigenisation law and has made a half-hearted go at ending corruption – half-hearted because he has gone after the corrupt G40 members but has allowed his own faction members go free. Worst still he has done absolutely nothing to implement the democratic reforms to end the country’s culture of lawlessness, political violence and vote rigging.

Zimbabwe is still a nation ruled by thugs, the removal of Mugabe alone did not transform Zanu PF from a ruthless dictatorship into a law abiding democratic party. A black mamba does not seize to be a deadly snake just because it has shed-off its old skin.

Whatever President Mnangagwa does on the economic front it will all come to naught as long as he has done nothing to end Zimbabwe’s reputation as a lawless nation ruled by thugs. He could not have had a more ominous start to his presidency – he is the beneficiary of a military coup and his cabinet is stuffed to the rafters with Zanu PF’s most cold-blooded thugs.

Indeed, if Mnangagwa was to make any foolish attempt to implement democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections then one thing is certain Operation Restore Legacy mark 2 in which he too will be forced to resign. The Zanu PF thugs have just got taken their respective seats in the dictatorship and they are not going to risk being booted out of power in a free election.

It economic changes are the seed, it is great that President Mnangagwa is paying attention to ensure we have good seed to plant. But by failing to restore the rule of law and holding free and fair elections, he is failing to ensure he has good soil to plant the seed. What good is it to have the best seed if you sow it in rocky soil or in among the weeds and thorns?

Yes Zimbabweans had dreamt of freedom, human rights and economic prosperity during the fight to white colonial oppression but deep down in the hearts of hearts they never believed that Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs would make that dream come true. So when the tyrant turned their whole world upside down to deny them their freedoms, rights and very humanity the people were disappointed but not shocked, they half expected it to happen.

After 37 years of Zanu PF corrupt and tyrannical rule the people are very pleased Mugabe has gone. They contend with Mugabe’s departure and do not dare ask who is coming after him because they already know it will be another dictator, they do not expect anyone else would be shocked if he/she was anything other than another corrupt, incompetent and murderous thug.

“No more interface rallies!” said Gore! Such a deplorable lack of ambition is shocking from even one person but when this at national level one is left speechless. Zimbabwe is in this hell-on-earth economic and political mess because we have had the great misfortune of having corrupt and incompetent leaders in both the ruling party and the opposition but all because we have one of the naïve and ignorant electorate with zero ambition for themselves and the nation.