Video: Zimbabwe politics, discussion with C Mubayiwa 17 December 2019

Zimbabwe politics, discussion with C Mubayiwa 17 December 2019


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEAomXQhK2E

"Zimbabweans matter more than any other person" declared Khupe - didn't matter during GNU only No. 1 mattered, you N Garikai

After meeting Mbeki, Former Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe said, “Our discussions with former President Thabo Mbeki were around how to move this country forward and we realise that we can only move the country forward by uniting as Zimbabweans and speaking with one voice.

“We want everyone to have a better life in this country and this can only come when people come together and start talking to one another. These are the issues we discussed with President Mbeki and we agreed that as political players in this country, let us come together, let us speak with one voice, let us move our country forward because the people of Zimbabwe matter (more) than any other person.”

Zimbabwe’s political players did come together, united and spoke with one voice during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Mai Khupe was deputy Prime Minister for Pete’s sake. Did that help move the country forward? Hell no! 

The primary purpose of the GNU was to implement the democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging elections and stop a repeat of the blatant cheating of March 2008 and the wanton violence during the run off that followed. No even one reform was implemented. 

“MDC leaders were busy enjoying themselves during the GNU, they forgot why they were there!” remarked one SADC diplomat is sheer exasperation at MDC’s failure to get even one reform implemented. 

It is remarkable that the same individuals from the last GNU are the ones clamouring for the formation of the new one. They know no meaningful reforms will ever be implement, given Zanu PF will keep its 2/3 majority in parliament. All these people want is a chance to get back on the gravy train so they can once again sing “The good times are here again!” 

“The people of Zimbabwe matter (more) than any other person.” That is a blatant lie Mai Khupe and you know it. If the people mattered, then you and your MDC friends would have implemented all the democratic reforms during the 2008 GNU when you had the golden opportunity to do so. You failed to get even one reform implemented because you were all busy looking after number one - your self, the people did not matter!

You, Mrs Khupe, and your fellow opposition politicians have participated in the 2013 and then 2018 elections not only knowing fully well that Zanu PF was rigging the elections but worse still, knowing that your participation was giving some modicum of credibility to a flawed, fraudulent and illegal process. 

“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” confessed David Coltart in his book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of tyranny in Zimbabwe. 

“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”

Zimbabwe’s opposition politicians have gone from hunting to sleeping with the enemy whilst continuing to run with the hare, the people. The new GNU you are proposing will legitimacy Zanu PF and you, your reward for selling out again, will get a share of the spoils of power. 

The power sharing arrangement you are clamouring for will not move the country one inch out of the mess we are stuck in because, just like the 2008 GNU, not meaningful democratic reforms will be implemented. 

The only way Zimbabwe is ever going to get out of this economic and political mess the country find itself stuck in, has been stuck now for the last 39 years and counting, is to get the democratic reforms implemented. Since Zanu PF cannot be trusted to implement the reforms, it will not reform itself out of office, then the party must be asked to step down so the country can appoint other players who will implement the reforms. 

Neither Zanu PF nor the MDC opposition leaders can take the country out of the mess, they are the ones who dragged the nation into this mess for selfish reasons and are keeping us captive for selfish reasons. If they truly cared about the people, they never tire of reminding us of that, they would have never dragged us into this mess in the first place!

Zimbabwe’s corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF thugs and their paid acolytes, the corrupt opposition sell-outs, must now all go.  Enough is enough.

Mbeki's mission is to drive MDC to join Mnangagwa in POLAD - nothing of substance will come of this P Guramatunhu

Nelson Chamisa met former South African president Thabo Mbeki and this is what he had to say: 

"We want dialogue that is meaningful, where the political will to change for the benefit of Zimbabweans outweighs political expediency. Dialogue must deliver true change and real reforms. When we shake hands let us be agreeing to truly walk in the same direction, a new direction.

"Democracy can't exist without a true commitment to happiness, freedom and peace. Our political impasse cannot continue. We stand firm on the principle that none but ourselves can bring about the true change we need. Real issues affecting us all must be at the heart of any dialogue.”

Former President Mbeki has gone to meet many of the other opposition leaders who have already acknowledge Mnangagwa and the Zanu PF regime as the legitimate winners of last year’s elections; a sign Mbeki is in the country to talk MDC to join POLAD. 

There is nothing in Chamisa’s twitter to suggest Mbeki will take the Zanu PF bull by the horns and tell the regime it is illegitimate and must step down. Nothing! 

By blatantly rigging last year’s elections, failing to stamp out corruption, shooting innocent protestors, etc. President Mnangagwa confirmed that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state. All his wittering about the November 2017 coup delivering a new democratic dispensation is all just hot air!

As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state there will be no meaningful economic recovery. 

The claim by Nelson Chamisa that his proposed dialogue and shaking hands with Mnangagwa will be enough to revive the economy is just another blast of hot air. The inclusion of a few MDC leaders in the Zanu PF cabinet will not change the fact that this regime rigged last year’s elections and hence change the country’s pariah state status. 

No one will be fooled by the addition of a few MDC leaders into this Mnangagwa regime; just as no one was fooled by the inclusion of Professor Mthuli Ncube, Kirsty Coventry, etc. into the cabinet. The new administration will be a Zanu PF dictatorship in all but name.

All Chamisa is after is a chance to be minister and get back on the gravy train. MDC had no vision to share during the 2008 GNU and it has no vision now.

It is clear, President Mbeki is pushing for a new Zanu PF and MDC GNU. The two parties failed to get any meaningful democratic reforms implemented during the 2008 GNU they will do no better now.

Zimbabwe’s economic crisis is dire; unemployment has remained at 90% ever since the hyperinflation years of 2004 to 2008; 90% of the population are poor with 34% now classified as extreme poverty according to a recent WB report; country’s health care has all but collapsed; etc. The country needs a working solution to end the crippling economic meltdown and it is so, so disappointing that all we will get is yet another political gimmick. 

SADC had the chance to redeem itself for failing to get the Zimbabwe crisis resolved during the 2008 GNU. It is clear President Mbeki’s proposed solution of giving power to Zanu PF will never works and the chance is, once again, being wasted. Thanks for nothing President Mbeki!

"Mbeki led to MDC crashing defeat" Ruhanya warns - wash your mouth with bleach, MDC failed to implement reforms P Guramatunhu

“Once beaten, twice shy. The MDC led by @nelsonchamisa should apply its wits in rational, logical, robust, rigorous ways taking into account how it was duped in the GNU President Mbeki brokered that led to MDC crashing defeat in 2013. Never be excitable. Calm down, cool heads," Pedzisai Ruhanya tweeted.

There are many things that were worry with the 2008 to 2013 GNU and SADC leaders have been, rightly, blamed for many of these shortcomings. But no one with any clue what the GNU was about and who was responsible for implementing the reforms can ever blame SADC leaders for the failure to get even one reform implemented. 

It is therefore foolish that some one like Pedzisai Ruhanya, supposedly a serious analyst, with all the benefit of hindsight, should still blame President Mbeki “for MDC’s crashing defeat in 2013” 

It was MDC leaders’ responsibility to implement the democratic reforms during the GNU. They took their eyes off the ball. Mugabe bribed them with ministerial limos, generous salaries, a US$4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc. The MDC leaders had the snouts in the feeding trough and the completely forgot about the reforms, for five years! 

SADC leaders tried to get the 2013 election postpone until the reforms were implemented. “If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done!” they warned Tsvangirai and company. Their warning fell on deaf ears! 

Acknowledging our own shortcomings is not a weakness but a measure of maturity - a key requirement in avoiding the trap of making the same mistake over and over again hoping to get a different result. 

Pedzisai Ruhanya is insane, he should wash his foul mouth with bleach for falsely accusing President Mbeki of failing to get even one reform implemented in the last GNU! It was MDC leaders themselves who failed to get even one reform implemented and participated in the elections knowing Zanu PF was rigging them, out of greed! 

If we are serious about ending the political and economic crisis is Zimbabwe then we must show the world that have the common sense to accept our own shortcomings and will not be blundering from pillar to post as we have done these last 40 years! 

Mbeki having a 2nd bite of Zimbabwe crisis: must tell Mnangagwa to step down, he is the problem and not solution W Mukori

“(Former SA President Thabo) Mbeki is in the country at invitation of President E.D. Mnangagwa. The two have just finished their meeting at State House, with former President likely to accede to requests for meetings from different personages including politicians,” announced George Charamba, Mnangagwa’s spokesperson.

"He might mean Madame Khupe, Misihairabwi, Mr Chamisa, Mr Isaac Maphosa and possibly former First Lady.

"The former President of South Africa offered his stature and access globally to help push Zimbabwe's agenda to have sanctions removed and to ensure reconnection with the rest of the willing world." 

Rubbish, everyone knows that the number one item on Zimbabwe’s national agenda is the country’s worsening economic meltdown. The situation is now so bad that 90% of the country’s population are  poor with 34% living in extreme poverty, according to a recent WB report. The country’s hospitals and clinics have all but closed for lack of doctors, nurses, medicine, equipment, power cuts, no water, etc., etc. 

Everyone can see that Zimbabwe is in a serious economic mess which, if not resolved a.s.a.p., will lead to a serious human tragedy and political instability that will suck the rest of Southern Africa. No doubt, Mnangagwa is hoping that President Mbeki will help him find a way out of the mess.

Of all people, President Thabo Mbeki will know that the root cause of Zimbabwe’s, seemingly, intractable economic and politic mess is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. The country has been stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship since 1980. The people could not remove Zanu PF from power even when it was evident the nation was desperate for change because the party rigged the elections. 

In 2008, after a particularly outrageous election in which Zanu PF had blatantly cheated and used wanton violence, SADC leaders led by President Mbeki rejected Zanu PF’s claim as winner of the elections and legitimate government. SADC leaders forced Mugabe together with MDC to form a Government of National Unity (GNU). The primary task of the GNU was to implement the raft of democratic reforms designed to stop a repeat of the cheating and violence debacle of 2008. 

Sadly not even one meaningful reform was implemented during the GNU. Not one! 

In an article “In defence of my Zimbabwe policy” published in February 2016, penned by President Mbeki himself, he admitted the GNU had failed to deliver its primary objective of getting the reforms implemented and ending Zimbabwe’s curse of rigged elections and bad governance.

The above article is available on the link https://www.thezimbabwean.co/2016/02/in-defence-of-my-zimbabwe-policy-thabo-mbeki/

So President Mbeki’s involvement in the Zimbabwe crisis will be his second bite at the cherry. The question that matters here then is whether he will make sure that the reforms, all of them, are properly and fully implemented and Zimbabwe’s next elections are free, fair and credible!

President Mbeki will have to look both Mnangagwa and Chamisa straight in the eyes and tell them failed to implement even one reform in 2008 and that it will be foolish to expect them to do so this time. 

Both Zanu PF and MDC are responsible for the mess in Zimbabwe, the former for dragging the nation into this mess and the latter by keeping the nation stuck in the mess. Both Zanu PF and MDC leaders have proven to be breathtakingly corrupt, incompetent, sell-outs and murderous tyrants. 

Both Mnangagwa and Chamisa are not just responsible for Zimbabwe’s political and economic problems, they are now the country’s number one problem. The two, and their respective political parties, cannot therefore be the solution in a situation in which they are the problem. 

To get out of the mess Zimbabwe must fully implement all the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 GPA and we must get others to do this. It will be naive to trust Zanu PF and MDC leaders to implement the reforms when they failed to get even one reform implemented last time! 

Yes , getting Mnangagwa and Zanu PF to step down will not be a walk in the park. What he and his Zanu PF cronies must understand is that this is the only solution and that the consequences of failing to resolve the situation is the worsening economic situation. 

Mnangagwa and his cronies must be reminded that they rigged last year’s elections. They have no mandate, never had, to govern the country and the stubborn refusal to step down is nothing short of holding the nation to ransom. This is a very serious matter which Mnangagwa and his friends must weigh carefully before they cross the line! 

“If elections fail Zanu PF will use any means necessary” - free elections are a right and not a privilege N Garikai

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Zimbabwe’s worsening economic meltdown has President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF colleagues really worried. They know the economic situation is unsustainable and power is slipping out of their hands. They response is to step up the tyrannical repression. 

“This is a revolutionary party, that liberated this country, and the only one that can defend the revolution, therefore, we will fight to defend that course by any means necessary,” said Victor Matemadanda, Zanu PF political commissar.

“Every election is a process to defend the revolution against Western imperial powers working in cahoots with local puppets. We will use any means necessary to defend the revolution.

“If elections fail we will use any other means necessary!” he concluded ominously. 

If anyone thought Matemadanda was just a loose cannon, Mnangagwa no less stood up reinforced Matemadanda’s word.

“Whilst we were at war, we would ask who is the chief of this area, and they would tell us that it is Chief Chikwaka,” he said.

“We would not ask who was contesting Chief Chikwaka (Goromonzi traditional leader). If someone comes into this country and they ask who rules over Zimbabwe, its Zanu PF.”

“You (Zanu PF members) are the voice of this country, you are the way of this country, you are the future of this country.”

Every time Zanu PF sensed that its strangle hold on power was being threaten, the party has turned up the political rhetoric and followed this with wanton violence to drive the message home.

Zanu PF does never subscribed to the notion that ordinary Zimbabweans have the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. The party blatantly rigged last year’s elections. The election went ahead without something as basic as verified voters’ roll. This was a deliberate and calculated move, a verified voters’ roll would have make the vote rigging that much difficult, of course.

What is frustrating here is not just that Zanu PF has blatantly rigged elections repeatedly but that the regime has partners. The opposition led by the MDC have participating in these flawed and illegal elections knowing Zanu PF will rig the elections. Worse still, they have also known that by participating they were giving the process ‘credibility’ as David Coltart readily admitted. 

“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” admitted Coltart in his book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of tyranny in Zimbabwe.

“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”

So many golden opportunities to implement the reforms and end the Zanu PF dictatorship have been wasted on the opposition alter of greed.

Then there are others like Professor Mthuli Ncube, Minister Kirsty Coventry and many others who are working for this Zanu PF regime knowing it rigged the elections and is per se illegitimate. They paid and paid well for propping up the dictatorship. The two attended the just ended Zanu PF conference and they joined the rest of the party faithful in cheering Mnangagwa and Matemadanda’s speeches. 

We can agree to differ on many things but surely we should not differ on what constitute free, fair and credible elections and that this is a right and not a privilege. It is therefore infuriating that some people pretend, for selfish reasons, that Zanu PF did not rig last year’s elections and thus undermining the work of those calling for democratic change.

Zanu PF will never implement any meaningful democratic reforms and restore the people’s right to a meaningful vote. All political and economic pressure must now be brought to bear on Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies to steps down! The lifted sanctions must be brought back.

All economic and political pressure must also be brought to bear on MDC leaders Zanu PF apologists who are propping up this Zanu PF dictatorship. These individuals must now be added to the sanctions list!

Yes, Zanu PF’s stern warnings that the party will use wanton violence to retain power must be taken seriously. Still the human tragedy brought on by 39 years of Zanu PF misrule is real too and cannot be ignore. The consequences of just another year of this; millions living in abject poverty with no health care, no education, etc. is unthinkable. Abandoning these poor souls to mercy of the Zanu PF tyrants is not an option. 

Mnangagwa and his thugs must be told in no uncertain terms that he must restore the freedoms and rights of every Zimbabwean including the right to a meaningful vote and the right to life. These are rights and not privileges he can give to some and deny to others as he sees fit.

Mnangagwa can and should impeached but will never happen whilst dictatorship rules the roost W Mukori

Can the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa be impeached? 

On paper, yes he can be impeached. 

A complete list of all the articles of impeachment against Mnangagwa in his two years in the presidency will fill a number of pages. I will just confine to just two high treason charges 

1. In plotting and executing the November 2017 military coup and then afterwards getting Chief Justice George Chiweshe to falsify declare the act “legal, justified and constitutional”. Whilst some have argued with some justification that it was the only way remove the dictator Robert Mugabe. The fact remains that it was nonetheless unconstitutional and threatened to throw the nation into even greater instability and chaos as, indeed, happened in this case. There is no denying the 2017 coup removed one dictator only to replace him with another.

1. In failing to implement any meaningful democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible July 2018 elections, blatantly rigging the said elections and then imposing himself as the legitimate president and government. 

Mnangagwa can and, indeed, should be impeached but he will not be impeached because Zimbabwe is not a health and functioning democracy. The horse, the treasonous president, has already bolted. 

“A president “might pervert his administration into a scheme of peculation or oppression,” James Madison (one of America’s founding fathers) said of the need for an impeachment clause (in USA constitution). “He might betray his trust to foreign powers.”

“Madison and his fellow framers understood that elections — which, under normal circumstances, are the essence of democratic self-government — could not serve their purpose if a president was determined to cheat to win,” explained New York Times, in its editorial.

“As the constitutional scholar Noah Feldman testified before the Judiciary Committee last week, “Without impeachment, the president would have been an elected monarch. With impeachment, the president was bound to the rule of law.”

By successful rigging elections for these last 39 years Zanu PF leaders have systematically eroded the democratic right of the people to a meaningful vote. Instead of the people holding those in power to democratic account it is the people who are now at the mercy of the ruling elite, especially the rural voters who have been reduced into medieval serfs beholden to the Zanu PF landlords! 

Instead of the people electing the MPs and thus the people exercising power over the MPs; it is Mnangagwa and the select few manning the party’s vote rigging machinery who elect the MPs and thus control them. In Zimbabwe Mnangagwa enjoys absolute power he controls the electorate and the MPs. 

In Zimbabwe it is the tail, the president, that wags the dog, the nation, parliament and all the state institutions. 

The only way Mnangagwa can be impeach is at gun point - as happened to Mugabe. 

The November 2017 coup removed one dictator but only to replace him with another dictator, this was not the political change the nation has been dying for - removing the dictatorship and replacing it with a democratic system of government. 

We should focus all our time, energy and sweat on getting Mnangagwa and Zanu PF to step down on the grounds the party does not have the mandate to govern since last year’s elections were rigged. This will create the political space to appoint a body that can be entrusted the task of implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections. 

Once the democratic system in established, one only hopes that the people will be vigilant and alert and not lose it as easily as they did in 1980!

Those calling for Mnangagwa to be impeach, as long as the Zanu PF dictatorship remains strong, they are wasting their time.