Confronting ED dictatorship head-on: We demand enlightened government based on free vote - not next time, NOW

“England must move forward to a more enlightened form of government based on a true representation of a free people. Such an institution is known as a democracy!” These were the memorable words of Oliver Cromwell, the man many would agree was the father of England’s parliamentary democracy.

“Democracy is a Greek drawl based on a foolish notion that there are extraordinary possibilities in very ordinary people,” replied King Charles 1, dismissively. 

“It is the ordinary people who would readily lay down their lives in defence of your realm,” Cromwell fired back. “It is simply that in being ordinary they prefer to be asked and not told!”

Cromwell, like so many other of his generation where unhappy with England’s feudal political system in which the King enjoyed absolute power. At the time of the above exchange Charles had dissolved parliament and had been ruling by decrees for 12 years “taxing the poor beyond their means and spending it on lavish court!” 

Zimbabwe has just had a new tax aimed at those living o US$1.00 or less a day. The money will pay the debt from buying cars for Chiefs, Zanu PF elections candidates, chartering a plane for Grace Mugabe from Singapore and back @ US$ 1.4 million a trip, etc.

On the political from, Zanu PF has ridden roughshod over the people, denying them their freedoms and basic human rights including the right to free elections and even the right to life. The Zanu PF regime has murdered over 30 000 Zimbabweans to create and retain the one-party Zanu PF dictatorship. 

Before independence, Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF friends promised the nation “one-man one-vote”. But, by the time the country attained her independence, they had changed their minds, they were determined to impose a one-party state. They were forced to sign onto to the Lancaster House multi-party democratic constitution and they set-out to undermine it from day one. 

Just like King Charles 1, Zanu PF leaders had nothing but contempt for the ordinary people’s ability to do anything and have pointedly denied them a meaningful say in the governance of the country. Zanu PF has never held free, fair and credible elections, be it at party level or national level. Never ever!

When President Mnangagwa seized power from Mugabe last year, he promised to hold free, fair and credible elections. Many hope that he made the promise because he was aware of the party’s lack of democratic credentials and was keen to put this right. Sadly, the promise proved to be a bridge too far.

SADC and AU Election Observers teams were very careful to focus on the “peaceful environment throughout the campaign period and on voting day”. They said nothing about such glaring flaws and illegalities as the failure to allow 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora to vote and the regime’s failure to produce a verified voters’ roll, although this is a legal requirement! 

As for the shooting of seven unarmed civilians on 1st August, shuttering the myth these were peaceful elections, both SADC and the AU election reports did not even go there. Other observer teams were more forthright and honest in their condemnation of the elections. The elections as “biased and unfair”, said the Commonwealth team.

“Major shortcomings in the pre-election environment impacted on the free expression of the will of electors, state resources were misused in favour of the incumbent and coverage by state media was heavily biased in favour of the ruling party,” said the EU Election Observer Mission in its very detailed report. 

“Further, the electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability.

“Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.” 

So there is no point denying that Zanu PF rigged the 30 July 2018 elections. As recent as last Thursday, President Mnangagwa told Police graduate that the elections were “peaceful, free, fair and credible”. We have more urgent matters to attend to!

Now we know that Zanu PF rigged the 30 July 2018 elections; WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

Answer: We must tell Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta in no uncertain terms that they rigged the elections, they are illegitimate, and they must go. 

“Zimbabwe must move forward to a more enlightened form of government based on a true representation of a free people!”   to paraphrase Oliver Cromwell.

It is not for SADC, the international community or anyone else to say this. They have all done their bit by condemning the 30 July 2018 elections. What we in Zimbabwe want is for Zanu PF must step down to allow for a democratic government to take over; the gene is now out of the bottle there is no putting it back.  

Some people have argued that we should ignore the rigged elections, after all this is not the first time Zanu PF has rigged elections, and just concentrate on working with the regime. There four things these people must remember:

1. After 38 years of trying to work with the Zanu PF dictatorship and failing, the country is up to her eyes right now precisely because all the past efforts work with the regime have failed. It is insane to keep trying the same thing 38 years and counting and expect a different result!

2. With the country’s economy in a comatose state, 75% of the population living on US$1.00 or less per day, etc. the country is standing on the edge of the precipice. This country must finally deal with its demons before hell breaks lose and Zimbabwe becomes just another Somalia, Libya, etc.

3. If we do not force Zanu PF to step down now and allow the regime to stay in office until the next elections then we can be 100% of one thing - Zanu PF will rig the 2023 elections just as readily as the party has rigged this year’s elections and all the other in the past.

4. Zanu PF is imploding, as party member fight for the ever shrinking cake and to escape the rising tide of mass poverty. If we do not de-couple Zanu PF, the party from Zimbabwe, the nation, the party sink into the abyss and drag the nation with it.

When Oliver Cromwell and the other reformers failed to get King Charles 1 to accept the need for peaceful change, the country was plugged into a bloody civil war. When Charles still refused to listen to reason, he was beheaded! 

“The King is not England and England is not the King. It is not the survival of the King that is at issue here but the survival of England!” Cromwell summed up forcefully. 

I will say Amen to that!

Zanu PF is imploding, the party is rotten to the core and the centre cannot hold; the party is sinking into the abyss and is dragging the nation down with it! We have a duty to stop and can do so if we apply ourselves.

Our call for democratic free, fair and credible elections is a justice cause but, as history will tell us, that is not enough to guarantee our deliverance. We have demanded free, fair and credible elections with very little conviction and belief. And  when elections have been blatantly rigged we have, at best, we have reacted much as the hen after a chick snatching eagle - make racket flapping wings, huff and puff to impress the naive and gullible but knowing fully well it will do nothing to recover the snatched chick or stop it happening again! 

We have to confront the Zanu PF dictatorship with as much resolve and revolutionary fervour as we confound the all flap and no substance hens amongst our people! (I am sure you can already guess who are these hens are! All will to be revealed in the next instalment.)

"Our economic fundamentals are sound" says Cross - not whilst remain a pariah state N Garikai

It is John Acton who said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” 

In countries like Zimbabwe where the great majority of the people have no clue what is going on it is not surprising that those in positions of power and authority have always enjoyed absolute power and have, in turn, been thoroughly corrupted by it to the point of viewing themselves not just as “great men” but as infallible demigods! Eddie Cross is one such mediocre individual who views himself as a demigod whom we must all listen to or be damned!   

 “Seeing things in perspective has never been more important in Zimbabwe. If we fail to do so, our view of the current problems we are encountering will be distorted and we may all make decisions we later regret,” wrote former MDC MP, Eddie Cross in Bulawayo 24.

Rich, coming from a senior leader of the party that has failed to implement even one democratic reform in the MDC’s 19 years in power and has never even acknowledge the betrayal much less regret it! In the article, Mr Cross claims that President Mnangagwa’s economic policies, since assuming power in last November’s coup,  have already been rewarded by “a sharp reduction in the fiscal deficit and we will be in surplus by Christmas.” All nonsense, of course!

“In March 2017, when approached to consider a national government without an election in 2018, Mnangagwa had responded with the view that Zimbabwe had to hold a reasonably free and fair election if it was to gain international recognition and support,” wrote Cross.

“In my view, he was to hold true to that view and in the process, put his whole political future on the line. He could easily have lost the election and the final margin of just 30 000 votes or 0,6%, was simply too tight to call. Or for comfort. But the gamble paid off.

“Again, perspective was important — what the opposition failed to see was that the international community was fed up with the constant crisis in Zimbabwe and wanted to engage and get the country’s international relations back to normal. What they also failed to see was that the new President was determined to do just that.”

President Mnangagwa failed to keep his promise to hold free, fair and credible elections; the regime failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll for Pete’s sake. Even the British who had tried to bend over backwards to get the Mnangagwa regime accepted back into the fold of the commune of nations gave up in the end. Ambassador Catriona Laing’s parting shot as outgoing UK ambassador to Zimbabwe was tell the Zanu PF regime the “election playing field was not level”! 

So Mnangagwa blatantly rigs the elections and our MDC demigod, in his divinely “perspective”, still insist the election was free, fair and credible! 

The foreign investors and lenders, Mnangagwa was wooing with his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” clarion call, have shied away from investing in Zimbabwe. Who would want to invest in a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs!

“I now hear people saying that the resumption of shortages and fuel queues and the sudden emergence of a parallel market for hard currencies means that we are going back into the conditions we experienced in 2005 to 2008,” Mr Cross maintained.

“Nothing could be further from the truth, our economic fundamentals are sound, exports and the gross domestic product growing rapidly and once the new team in the Finance ministry started to tackle the macro-economic problems of the country, they were immediately rewarded by a sharp reduction in the fiscal deficit and we will be in surplus by Christmas.

“At this pace, we will be in a different country by March 2019. Let’s keep our current problems in perspective — if we do, they will not look so entrenched or formidable.”

As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state it is nonsensical to even suggest the country’s “economic fundamentals are sound”! Zimbabwe is not going to get out of the political and economic mess without first implementing the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections

"2nd Republic saw expansion of democratic space" boasted ED - didn't last, tyranny returned with a deadly bang W Mukori

“Mupakati inokubirwa mutsitsi; akakupa chisvanda, anopendedza nenyika!” (Tyrants rob by the bushel full; they give away a bowl and make a big song and dance of their generosity!) So goes the Shona  proverb. It says all that needs to be said about this Zanu PF dictatorship!

Officiating at a police graduation ceremony last Thursday, Mnangagwa appeared to have the planned MDC demonstration in mind when he warned that people must not abuse their freedoms.

"The advent of the new dispensation and the Second Republic saw the expansion of democratic space in our country, as enshrined in our Constitution. This culminated in the holding of peaceful, free, fair and credible harmonised general elections,” President Mnangagwa said last Thursday.

"However, it is regrettable that some retrogressive, unpatriotic and selfish individuals are bent on abusing the democracy we now enjoy.”

1. Yes, this year’s elections were relatively peaceful - up to 1 st August shooting dead of seven unarmed civilians following the post elections protest - compared to the wanton violence and barbarism of the 2008 elections. President Mnangagwa knows only too well of the madness of that year as he was the Zanu PF pointer man behind it all. He has gone to town about how he has reined in the war veterans, party thugs and the various security services personal behind the violence in the past elections. To hear him talk about it one would think peaceful elections is not a right but a privilege we should all be forever grateful to Mnangagwa and his Second Republic for!

2. President Mnangagwa can claim the elections were free, fair and credible as often as he wish; the cold reality is he rigged the elections. EU, the Americans, the Commonwealth and even the British, who had supported him ever since last November’s coup, had no choice but to admit the elections were rigged. Whether President Mnangagwa likes it or not, his regime does not have the democratic mandate to govern the country, it is illegitimate. Worse still, Zimbabwe’s economic recovery will never happen because no serious investors will do business in a pariah state governed by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. 

3. The shooting of the protestors soon after the voting day was a timely reminder to the nation that the relative peace up to voting day had exercised Zanu PF’s patience. The party’s patience snapped at the sight of protestors and armed soldiers were deployed with instructions of shoot to kill just to remind the nation that Zanu PF is still a party of violence ruling by fear and not the democratic mandate. “Zanu PF ndeye ropa!” (Zanu PF is a party of blood!) as the party members have often sung out boastfully!

4. As this talk of “unpatriotic and selfish individuals bent on abusing the democracy” is just an excuse to justify the regime resorting to the same tyrannical measures Zanu PF had used all along. The so called Second Republic, the new dispensation was a myth shrouded in smoke and mirror. Two events, the rigged elections and the shooting of unarmed civilians, have exposed the lie of the Second Republic. Last November military coup changed nothing much other than replacing Mugabe with Mnangagwa who is “Mugabe mark 2”, as British MP Kate Hoey rightly called him.

5. President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta are committed to one thing above all else, that Zanu PF must remain in power at all cost. “Zanu PF ichatoga! Igotonga! Imi muchingohukura! Nokuhukura!” (Zanu PF will rule! And rule! Whilst (those calling for free elections) bark! And bark!) Was the first thing Mnangagwa said to reassure his party members soon after last November’s coup. Zanu PF has established a robust political system to effectively deny the people their freedoms and basic human rights including the right to free elections and even the right to life. The party has certainly robbed povo by the bushel full and it sure makes a big song and dance of every bit of freedom or right the regime gives away, even if be for a short period. 

6. If we are serious about reclaiming our basic freedoms and rights, about Zimbabwe holding free, fair and credible elections and restoring good governance and putting the nation back of a firm track of economic recovery; then we demand the implementation of all the democratic reforms. We must reject the bowl Zanu PF is offering us and demand the bushel full the regime stole from us!

VIDEO Zimbabwe Weekly News - 17 November 2018

Zimbabwe weekly news round up: 17 November 2018 

https://youtu.be/4PjOZhbGBxA

Attachments area

Preview YouTube video ZIMNEWS WEEKLY ROUND UP

ZIMNEWS WEEKLY ROUND UP

Lift sanctions, Zimbabwe has change enough "to scold ED" - but not to hold free election P Guramatunhu

Zimbabwe is in serious economic and political trouble and there many reasons why this is so. One of these many reasons is the country is cursed with having more than its fair share of corrupt and incompetent village idiots with a big mouth. 

“We cannot deny it, the atmosphere has changed. There is now freedom of speech and expression in this country, people can now openly talk and some actually scold the President,” said Rev Andrew Wutawunashe.

“I have realised that this is all because of freedoms in this country. The atmosphere has changed, the playing field has changed, hence there is no need for inhumane methods like sanctions.

“The most direct and devastating effect of these sanctions has thus been catastrophic unemployment levels, poverty, extreme damage to health and other services and a general crippling economic stagnation all of which have burdened and oppressed the poor.”

Sanctions is just a red herring that Zanu PF and its apologists want to come back to again and again just to draw attention away from the real big issues the nation is facing. The Americans made is very clear, hold free, fair and credible elections and they will lift all the sanctions. The question Rev Wutawunashe must therefore answer is: Were the recent elections free, fair and credible? 

Only a first class village idiot would pretend an election in which the regime failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll can ever be considered free and fair!  

The elephant in the room here is not the sanctions but the pariah state. The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is the criminal waste of human and material resources through gross mismanagement and rampant corruptions. It is the criminal waste of resources that cripple the national economic and cause abject poverty. 

In 2016 Mugabe admitted that the nation was “swindled $15 billion in diamond revenue”. To this day, not even one of the swindlers has been arrested and not one red cent recovered. No nation on earth can afford this level of economic haemorrhage much less one with a GDP of $10 billion, like Zimbabwe.

It is shocking that people like Wutawunashe are quick to blame the sanctions for causing the country’s economic meltdown but have yet to produce the evidence of how that is so but ignore the more obvious cause of the criminal waste of resources by the country’s ruling elite. 

Like every other Zimbabwean citizen, Wutawunashe has sworn duty to do something to help end the criminal waste of resources by the ruling elite. Sadly, he elects to say nothing to Zanu PF thugs but instead focus his time and energy trying to get foreigners, over whom he has very little influence, to change their policies towards Zimbabwe. 

It is typical of the army of Zimbabweans idiots out there; they spend all their time and energy on what is NOT in their power to change and neglecting those in they can change! No wonder the country is in a mess.  

Ordinarily the country would have dealt with the wasteful ruling elite by holding them to democratic account and the ultimate censure of which is to remove them from office. We have failed to do this in Zimbabwe.

Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies have usurped the people’s power, freedoms and rights to create a de facto one-party state. The nation has been stuck with this corrupt and tyrannical regime for 38 years because Zanu PF rigged the elections. 

When President Mnangagwa got into power last November, after the military coup, he promised to hold free, fair and credible elections. We now know that he has failed to keep that promise, he blatantly rigged the elections to confirm Zimbabwe’s status as pariah state. 

Zimbabwe has failed to attract the much needed foreign direct investment because no investor and lender would want to do business in a politically and economically unstable pariah state. The regime and its apologist pretend it is the sanctions that are holding back economic recovery but that is a lie.

The most important task for us all is to pressure Zanu PF to ensure democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible are implemented. The sanctions are an integral part of pressure regime; those calling for the sanctions to lifted have no idea what they are wittering about.

“The atmosphere has changed!” The only change worth candle is one to guarantee free, fair and credible elections and thus lift the pariah state curse!

Ncube set timelines to dispose parastatals - sold for a song, ED has no mandate, he rigged elections P Guramatunhu

"FINANCE minister Mthuli Ncube has set timelines for the disposal and partial privatisation of a number of state-owned enterprises, as part of a raft of measures to revitalise Zimbabwe's fragile economy," reported the Zimbabwe Independent.

"A new audit report by Auditor-General (AG) Mildred Chiri has revealed that 23 insolvent parastatals are teetering on the brink of collapse, saddled with massive debts running into hundreds of millions of dollars.

"According to Chiri's audit, the identified parastatals which are on the brink of collapse have been weighed down by corruption and maladministration."

Many of us will remember the dirty arm-twisting Zanu PF employed to force the owners of the forerunner of Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (Zupco) (one of the insolvent parasols on for sell) bus company to sell. As soon as government took over the quality of bus service dropped and never recovered. 

Now this Zanu PF government has finally admitted that it should have never bought Zupco and all these other companies. Ordinarily one would be pleased that the government has finally admitted its failure given we are still dealing with the same corrupt and incompetent regime, there is nothing to suggest the disposal of these companies will be done efficiently and to the best interest of the nation!

Zanu PF landed the nation into this economic mess and it is naive to believe that the same regime, or be it with a new tyrant as leader, will get us out of the mess. Instead of digging us out of the mess, the regime is dragging us even deeper into the hell-hole! 

President Mugabe was just as confident of delivering mass prosperity, “gutsa ruzhinji”, when he nationalised these companies; President Mnangagwa is displaying the same arrogance in being certain to revive the country’s economic fortunes.  

When President Mnangagwa came into power last November, following the military coup, he promised to end corruption, for example, and yet has done nothing. According to Mugabe the nation was swindled out of $15 billion dollars in diamond revenue in the period 2009 to 2016. After a year in office, Mnangagwa has yet to arrested one swindler and to recover one red cent of the looted revenue. Not one red cent! 

Worse still, the looting in Marange is continuing to this day! The diamond mining activities are still taking place, the same players and under the same veil of secrecy. In 2012 the late Edward Takaruza Chindori-Chininga said in a parliamentary report that no one knew the quantity, quality, value, etc. of the diamonds coming out of Marange; such was the level of secrecy in the industry. The same veil of secrecy is still there today. 

There is yet a final chapter to be written in the disposal of Zimbabwe's parastatals. The nation will inherit all their mountain of debt and the companies are then sold for a song to individuals who will stripe the companies of all their assets, selling them for huge profits and walk away. 

Zanu PF has dragged the nation into this economic and political hell-on-earth of serious economic meltdown and the political chaos, murders and paralysis! Yes, dragged the nation because the party has rigged elections to stay in power against the democratic wishes of the people. 

President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta rigged the recent elections and thus continue to impose their tyrannical rule on the nation. Zanu PF does not have the people’s mandate to rule Zimbabwe and to impose its destructive economic policies on this nation now that it had at any time in the last 38 years. Whilst there is nothing we can do to turn back the clock and reverse the corruption and tyranny of the past; we can do something to stop the regime selling the little the nation has left and to end the regime's reign of terror.

It is a well established fact that President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta rigged the 30 July 2018 elections, the regime is therefore illegitimate, and thus has no mandate to govern nor dispose of any of the nation's assets and resources! Zanu PF must be pressured to step down now, that is not negotiable! 

Chamisa refuse to testify, wants to be thanked for "preserving peace" - nonsense, preserved Zanu PF, yes N Garikai

The Commission of inquiry chaired by former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, into the killing of seven unarmed civilians on 1 st August 2018 is now entering its home straight. 

Many people have given their reasons for dismissed the Commission as a waste of time and money but the most valid reason of all is that the Commission will not establish who deployed the soldiers with orders to shoot to kill. The Commission’s terms of reference and the line of questioning of the string witnesses who have appeared before the Commissioners so far would suggests finding who ordered the killing is beyond their remit. 

Nelson Chamisa, the MDC Alliance presidential candidate; whose party leaders and supporters are accusers of instigating the street protests; has dismissed the Commission as a waste of time. He and his party members have, so far, refused to participate in the public hearings. 

“Historically, we have been at pains to explain how Zimbabweans are living under oppression and subjugation from a captured state. It is characterised by the following;-

i.   There is no iota of accountability

ii.  There is total disregard of constitutionalism and the rule of law

iii. There is blatant abuse of State institutions

iv.  Absence of transparency 

v.   Total disregard of people s rights and freedoms”

MDC said in a recent public statement. No one can ever dispute that Zimbabweans have lived these last 38 years under a corrupt, vote rigging and tyrannical de facto one-party dictatorship.

However it is not so much the historic evidence of MDC’s “pains to explain how Zimbabweans are living under oppression” that is of interest here but rather the mountain of evidence of the many wasted golden opportunities MDC had to dismantle the dictatorship. As regards this ongoing Motlanthe led Commission; MDC leaders have three key questions to answer:

1. Why has MDC failed to implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship, especially during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when they had the golden opportunity to do so? In all MDC’s 19 years on the political stage, the party has failed to bring about even one democratic change.

2. Why did MDC choose to participate in the elections knowing the process would be flawed and illegal? The party was warned countless times not to take part in the elections without first implementing the democratic reforms designed to stop vote rigging; but has ignored the warnings. The primary cause of the street protest was against yet another rigged election, something we all knew would happen. 

3. MDC knew of Zanu PF’s “state capture and blatant abuse of state institutions” like ZEC and Con-Court and still Nelson Chamisa and company chose to take part in the recent election and the court challenge of the declared result presided over by the two institutions. Of course, the Motlanthe Commission was going to be subjected to the same Zanu PF political shenanigans as all the other state institutions. So having accepted the power and authority of the politically compromised ZEC, Con- Court, etc.; why is MDC now refusing to cooperate with an equally compromised Motlanthe led Commission?

Both Nelson Chamisa and Tendai Biti have since been “invited to share their views” with the Commission of inquiry.

"They must invite Mnangagwa, Chiwenga and Mohadi also. If Mnangagwa does not go why should I go alone? The commission is working from the answer going backwards. It is a script and the script is to decimate the opposition,” Nelson Chamisa told a press conference yesterday.   

This is manna from heaven to The Herald, ZBC and all the Zanu PF controlled public media. They will whip the refusal by MDC leaders to testify as proof of guilty. They will now draw attention away from the real big issue here - Zanu PF has just once again rigged the elections and thrown away the nation’s chance of getting out of the hell-hole the party landed us in. 

Zanu PF and its surrogates in The Herald, etc. will be hoping to achieve their primary objective of drawing attention away from the real two burning issues here i.e. that Zanu PF has once again rigged the elections and that the shooting was a brazen Machiavellian move to silence all political dissent. 

The EU, Commonwealth, the Americans, etc. all condemned the recent elections as flawed and illegal but so what. Chamisa and the other 22 opposition presidential candidates knew that still they were tripping over each other to participate. Even when the regime failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, that did not stop Chamisa et al taking part!

"Instead of being thanked for trying to preserve peace in this country, I am being attacked,” Chamisa complained. 

No, Mr. Chamisa by failing to implement even one democratic reforms in 19 years and participating in flawed and illegal elections you and you opposition friends have help Zanu PF keep its dictatorial powers and to rig elections and give the process some modicum of political credibility! You have help preserve the Zanu PF dictatorship and only Mnangagwa and his cronies will thank you for it!