ED's "Zimbabwe is open for business" vs Mukadota's "Sadza hobos!" W Mukori

“Sadza hoboo! Nyama hoboooo! Rimai!” (There is plenty of food! Plenty of beer! Work!) Is one of the late Safirio Madzikatire’s best catch phrases.

To those who do not know who Safirio Madzikatire or more commonly known as Mukadota was; he was a comedian and musician who made many Zimbabweans laugh in the decades before and after independence.

In the above quotation, Mukadota, the town-wise, was encouraging his naïve and gullible “humwe” (gathering of neighbours to assist in some chore requiring many hands in return for food and drink) to work harder before breaking up for their food and beer. When the workers finally take the break, they discover there is very little food and beer!

“Vanida kukorera pano!” (Do they want to become obese at mine expense!) Is the cheeky reply to those complaining they are hungry and thirsty!

President Mnangagwa and his coup junta’s clarion call “Zimbabwe is open for business!” has all the essential ingredients of Mukadota’s humwe sketch.

1)     Mukadota needed people to weed his field – ED needs cash and investment, plenty of both, to kick start Zimbabwe’s very sick economy after 38 years of gross mismanagement and corruption. Under Mugabe Zimbabwe had earned a reputation as a pariah state ruled by thugs, big spenders who did not like paying their debts. This reputation had driven lenders and investors alike out of the country. From the day ED was sworn in as the new president, he committed himself to attract the investors and lender back.

2)     Town-wise Mukadota was being deceitful, encouraged the workers to work even harder on the promise there was plenty of food and beer – the junta promised all the removal of Mugabe and “the criminal elements who had captured the state” had completely transformed Zanu PF and Zimbabwe from the dictatorship to a democracy. The regime has talked of “new era, new Zimbabwe and new dispensation”.

3)     The setting is pregnant with theatrical drama, Mukadota encourages his neighbours to work harder on the promise of plenty of food; that is unheard of! If, for nothing else, this junta regime will be known for its passion for spin. The “new Zimbabwe” self-promotion has its roots with the very first act of the coup. “This is not a coup,” Lt General Sibisiso Moyo in the small hours of the morning of 15 November 2017, “it is a military assisted transition”.

4)     Whereas Mukadota deceived his naïve and gullible neighbours, who humoured him be playing along, even they were not going to be fooled again and again; ED is not that lucky. The lenders and investors were not so easily fooled by all this whitewashing. The investors knew the Zanu PF dictatorship was a colossal monster with many players including President Mnangagwa and the junta members; the monster was not going to be cleansed squeaky clean by the simple act of removing Mugabe and a few G40 thugs! Indeed, many investors must have raised their eye-brows at the clumsy attempt to deceive their by insisting the coup was not a coup.

5)     Mukadota had his neighbours in the field working and it was only after the work was done that they learned he had conned them. Mnangagwa promised the coup change Zimbabwe and the investors asked him to prove it – hold free, fair and credible elections. The regime’s failure to implement even one meaningful reform has proven to the whole world that Zimbabwe has not changed one bit.

6)     “Zimbabwe is open for business!” cry has failed to attract any business because until the country embrace democratic change, investors and lenders will continue to shy away from the country. No amount of spin will ever change that economic and political reality!  

7)    Like all good performers Madzikatire dressed, walked and talked to suit the town-wise Mukadota. As President Mnangagwa and his high-powered entourage of 10 Minister, 88 CEOs and many hangers-on all attired in their colourful scarfs they looked like Southern Ground hornbills with rainbow wattle instead of the usual red.

With the national economy in serious trouble; unemployment at 90%, ¾ of the people living on US$1.00 a day, etc. the nation is desperate for economic recovery. We need a cure to the country’s many economic ills. Instead of economic doctors with the statoscopes round their necks all we have is spin doctors, human size hornbills, squawking “Zimbabwe is open for business!” The shrewd investors can see for themselves that is a lie, they can see the country is still a pariah state ruled by thugs!

“Zimbabwe is open for business!” Back from China with mega, mega deals! 

"ED will win because of opposition disarray and rig vote," say panellists - which matters N Garikai

“Some Zimbabweans and political observers say it is likely that President Emmerson Mnangagwa will win the forthcoming presidential election, to be held between July and August this year, as the country’s opposition is in disarray though they doubt that the southern African nation will hold a free, fair and credible election,” reported The Zimbabwean quoting a VOA article.

“Mnangagwa is likely to win because there is no strong opposition and there is so much confusion within the opposition parties such that Mnangagwa is the likely option for most people and is the one in power and they say that there is a lot of effort from Mnangagwa to change things. People are more receptive to that,” said Linda Mujuru of Global Press Journal. She was one of the Zimbabweans panellist discussing Zimbabwe in Washington DC.  

There is clearly some very confused Zimbabweans out there. Do these people believe ED will win the elections because there is “disarray in the opposition camp” or because the elections are not going to be free, fair and credible?

Few people can deny that there is indeed disarray in the opposition but with Zanu PF refusing to implement even one reform to ensure free and fair elections only those who are mentally challenged can doubt that these elections are not free and fair.

A united opposition did not stop Zanu PF rigging elections in the past so why should a divided opposition matter?

The elections observers are not being asked whether Zanu PF would have won these elections anywhere given the confusion in the opposition camp? They are being asked whether the electoral process in Zimbabwe can ever deliver free, fair and credible elections? A process in which there is no free media, no verified voters’ roll, key institutions like ZEC and the Police are but a department of the ruling party in all but name, etc.

Indeed, we should not be surprised there is confusing in the opposition camp just as, until the last November’s military coup, there was pandemonium in Zanu PF itself; the one-party dictatorship that Mugabe and Zanu PF has fostered on the nation has forced competent leaders out of politics. Zimbabwe politics has become so dirty that only thugs can thrive.

This is why we need to implement the democratic reforms, drain the swamp to get rid of all the crocodiles and all the other swamp dwelling creepy crawlies, and allow democratic competition to take root. Open debate and democratic competition will sort the quality leaders with grey stuff between their ears from the corrupt, incompetent empty head thugs who have now filled all the public offices going.  

“There is need to have a united force and there is need to have and a need to have an organized force in the opposition and there is need to invest heavily and ensure that people are registered to vote,” added another panellist, Irene Petras of International Centre for Not-for-Profit Law. Many people will know her from her days as Executive Director of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.

There is no denying that there are not quality leaders on both sides of Zimbabwe’s political divide and there will never be, as long as politics remains the exclusive domain of the corrupt, incompetent and ruthless thugs. Quantity is a poor substitute for quality; that is common sense, but clearly not so common amongst some Zimbabwean intellectuals!

ED "smart elections" to fool observers but not investors, says MP Cross - not smart at all P Guramatunhu

“We are headed for a “smart election”, not free and fair in the conventional sense but one which will be controlled and directed by the same team that won the 2013 elections. Its outcome is being predicted with total certainty as being a two-horse race with Emmerson Mnangagwa the clear winner, Nelson Chamisa a close second and the also ran’s miles behind,” you said. 

You are spot on! It is hard to see how these coming elections can be anything else other than being rigged, since the regime has pointedly refused to implement even one democratic reform. 

“But I think they will be able to claim after the election that the “people have spoken”. The fact that they had their hands tied behind their backs, were subjected to a constant steam of propaganda and their basic needs delivered on a “command basis” by the military in mufti, will be very difficult to see and the international Community will begin to recognise the new regime once it takes over,” you continued. 

Well you are wrong there. The international community knows that it is IMPOSSIBLE for Zimbabwe to hold free, fair and credible elections without a free media, verified voters’ roll, a fair and transparent party funding system, etc. The Americans have just been in Zimbabwe to spell out these requirements. 

At one time it looked like the British were going to turn a blind eye to yet another rigged elections. They too have since changed their mind and are demanding free and fair elections.    

“July’s election will be a bellwether for the direction of a new Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe Government must deliver the free and fair elections the people of Zimbabwe deserve and which it has promised. The UK stands ready in friendship to support a Zimbabwe that fully embraces the rule of law‚ human rights and economic reform‚” UK Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, told Foreign Affairs Minister S B Moyo last week. 

SADC leaders turned a blind eye to Zanu PF vote rigging in 2013 and look where it got the country! The economic meltdown got worse and to crown it all we had the coup in November last year. The same will happen again this time, if the world was to allow President Mnangagwa to get away with rigging this year’s elections. 

“Zimbabwe cannot be “open for business” unless we take the rule of law seriously and imprint on everyone’s mind the principles and values embedded in our Constitution. If the Constitution is the supreme law, then so be it – without exception, and the games that this Government has played with the Constitution – treating it as if it was “just another piece of paper”, must stop,” said MP Cross.

If there is anything that exemplifies this government’s contemptuous disregard of the law it is the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. And of all people, investors, will take note of that and away. A nation that has no respect of the law is NOT ready to do business. 

SADC leaders will be very foolish to let Zanu PF get away with another rigged elections; they allowed that to happen in 2013 and the regime repaid them with the November 2017 coup. The next coup may well throw the whole region into chaos! 

It is a great pity that the ordinary people are helpless to stop the holding these flawed and illegal elections, a waste of time and treasure, since both Zanu PF and the opposition are determined to see them go ahead. All the former want is to retain the party’s iron grip on power and all the later want is the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away as bait. Both do not give a damn that the process denies the ordinary people a meaningful say in the governance of the country and the tragic economic and human consequences of decades of corrupt and tyrannical rule. 

What the people are able to do is demand that these elections must be declared null and void and force the nation to revisit and implement the democratic reforms MP Cross and his MDC friends were tasked to implement during the GNU but failed to. We need to finally put an end to this cycle of flawed elections and corrupt government that is behind Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown, poverty and human misery!

Even if President Mnangagwa was to fool the international election observers into accepting these flawed elections because they failed to uncover evidence of vote rigging. The regime will not fool the investors who will not invest in a lawless country, thus confirming that “Zimbabwe is NOT open for business,” as you, MP Cross rightly pointed out. What, then, will be the justification of calling the flawed elections “smart elections”?

"We are free to comment on ED FaceBook page," says Mike - is that all you ever wanted N Garikai

“The English writer George Orwell once famously wrote, "if liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.",” wrote Mike Harare in a well received and appropriately titled piece “The new-found freedom to speak our mind”. See Bulawayo 24.

“We Zimbabweans understand the truth of this statement all too well. For years, we have not had true liberty. Not only could we not have told our former president what he did not want to hear, but we couldn't even mention his name. We were scared to say the word Mugabe – on the street, at work and even at home. To do so meant risking our lives.

“Today things are different. Whatever our views of ED and his 'new dispensation', we can all acknowledge that things have changed. All you need to do is open the newspaper, walk down the street, sit in the barber, travel in a kombi, or even look at ED's Facebook page. Wherever you look you hear and see freedom. People debating, questioning, arguing and criticising. If you don't believe me, scroll down the comments on ED's Facebook to see that people now feel free - could anyone imagine Robert Mugabe having a Facebook page, let alone openly writing what they thought of him on it?”

My brother, you are like someone who has been cooked up in the dark for a long time (for black Zimbabweans it has been a lifetime since we had no freedom of speech before or after independence); they are so glad to be out in the light although they can see nothing! Calm down, close your eyes and take a more careful and considered look; you will see that things are NOT that different.

When was the last time you opened The Herald, The Chronicle or any of all the other public media but Zanu PF controlled newspapers? You will not find many “people debating, questioning, arguing and criticising” ED and Zanu PF there. I do know what I am talking about because I have send my opinion pieces to Bulawayo 24, Zimeye and few other independent publications plus “zimpaper”. Not even one of my articles has ever seen the light of day, there are millions of others who have been similarly shut out. The situation is even worse on ZBC radio and tv!  So much to your “new-found freedom to speak our mind”!

The nation is holding elections in a few weeks’ time and still we do not have freedom of expression and a free public media. How can the elections be judged free, fair and credible if the voters are allowed to know only the good about the Zanu PF candidates and the bad or nothing about the other candidates?

The full extent of freedom and liberty is NOT just to speak one’s mind, or as you say, “to openly write what one thinks of a leader on his/her Facebook page!” Being afforded the opportunity to speaking one’s mind is an essential start but must never ever be an end in itself.

The most important thing here is that all those aspiring or holding public office are duty bound, as contrast to doing the people a favour, to afford the people the opportunity to have meaningful say in the governance of the country – the ultimate meaningful say if a free, fair and credible vote whose consequence is freely elect or reject the leader.

Whilst no one would deny that people were scared of talking openly of Mugabe’s reign of terror still the worst part was not that they could not talk about but that they were stuck with the regime. For nearly four decades the nation has failed to remove this incompetent, corrupt and murderous regime from office because it rigged elections. It should be noted that Mugabe’s captain of the guard who carried out all the vote rigging, looting and political murders was none other than President Mnangagwa assisted by VP Chiwenga, Minister Shiri, Minister S B Moyo and many of those now in the “new dispensation”.  

“Zanu PF ichatonga! Igotonga! Imi muchingo hukura! Nokuhukura!” (Zanu PF will rule! And rule! Whilst you (calling for reforms) bark! And bark!) said President Mnangagwa soon after the November coup.

Millions of dollars in treasure were lost and tens of thousands lives lost in the fight for independence and even more in treasure and human lives were lost since then in the fight to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. If all the nation get out of all this sacrifice is the freedom to comment on ED’s Facebook page then it was not worth the candle!

No wonder the country is in a real mess, with such naïve and myopic citizens like Mike, this country is ripe for dictators and tyrants to rule forever. And worse still, the nation will never ever get out of the mess with braindead citizens like Mike around. Never ever!