As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state, there will be no economic recovery - regardless what EU says P Guramatunhu

Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs. It is near impossible to do business in a pariah state and hence the reason Zimbabwe’s economy has been in decline for all the decades of Zanu PF misrule.

Mnangagwa saw the need for Zimbabwe to shed off its Banana Republic image as a pre-requisite to economic re-engagement and recovery when he seized power in the November 2017 military coup. He promised to end corruption and, most important of all hold free, fair and credible elections and thus end the curse of rigged elections. 

Sadly, Mnangagwa has failed to keep any of his promises. Corruption is still rampant. He looked sheepishly foolish the other day when he was asked to explain the rational behind the latest anti-corruption gimmick of “arrest and release!” By blatantly rigging the July 2018 elections Mnangagwa has firmly confirmed that Zimbabwe is still very much a pariah state of Mugabe days.

A few people have been saying that as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state, there will be no meaningful economic recovery. The facts on the ground are proving them right.

 “A top economist says industrial capacity utilisation could decline to 27 % this year if government does not take a step to dumping its destructive policies,” reported New Zimbabwe.

“According to the report, capacity utilisation declined by 11.8 % to 36.4% in 2019, down from 48.2% that was recorded in 2018.”

Other economic indicators such as the hyperinflation that has soared to 500% plus all point to one thing, the Zimbabwe economy is sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss. 

The consequences of the worsening economic situation is the collapse of basic services such as education and health care. According to a recent WB report, 34% of Zimbabweans now live in extreme poverty the corresponding figure in countries in the region is less than 10%. 

The worsen economic meltdown in Zimbabwe is serious and its consequences of the people’s lives is intolerable. The situation cannot be allowed to continue. 

This Zanu PF regime is under the erroneous impress the country’s economy can and will revive regardless of the country remaining a pariah state. Or, at the very least, that by implementing the reforms, the regime is doing something to end the pariah state status. 

 The EU’s decision to take off everyone except Zimbabwe Defence Industry off the sanctions list has encouraged Zanu PF to believe the country will soon be free of the cursed pariah state label although. Nothing could be more further from the truth! 

Zanu PF has not implemented even one meaningful reform in the last 18 months since the rigged July 2018 elections. Indeed, President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF colleagues insist that the 2018 elections were free, fair and credible proof they are paying lip service to reforms. 

So whilst Zanu PF remains in power Zimbabwe will remain a pariah state because, even if Zanu PF was implementing the reforms, the party will remain illegitimate by virtue of getting into power through the rigged 2018 elections. And, with no reforms in place, Zanu PF is certain to rig the 2023 elections and Zimbabwe will be a pariah state post 2023! 

It is worth repeating again, that as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs; economic recovery will remain a mirage! 

Since Zanu PF will never implement any reforms, the only alternative is to appoint an independent body that will carry out this important task.

The mere appointment of the body to replace the illegitimate Zanu PF regime will prove the acknowledgement the July 2018 elections were rigged and the willingness to address this thorny issue decisively. This will go a long way to restore investor and lender confidence in a democratic Zimbabwe emerging at the end of the day and thus confidence to do busy going forward.

"No one has monopoly of ideas" says Mnangagwa - so rigged elections to form POLAD. We are stuck! Wilbert Mukori

We are stuck! Of course, we are stuck! 

Nothing encapsulates Zimbabwe’s economic decline and helplessness more than what happened to our agricultural sector. We live in the day and age when human ingenuity has turned deserts in blooming fields and orchards. Zimbabwe is for all intent and purposes the Biblical Garden of Eden and once upon a time we used to be the breadbasket of the whole region. Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies seized the farms and shared them amongst themselves, mostly, and our agricultural sector completely collapse.

“We are importing maize, wheat, carrots, potatoes . . . . We import everything!” Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor, Dr John Mangudya admitted in a recent video in Spotlight-z.

We are starving in the Garden of Eden! A damning testimonial of human failure!

As long as Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies remain in government and thus retain the ownership of the farms; Zimbabwe’s food shortages are set to remain. These errant farmers are certainly not giving up their farms since they have been earning fortunes in farming subsidies from the government’s Command Agriculture programmes - a conduit for looting billions of dollars of public funds with little to show for it. 

Of course, we are stuck! We know we are stuck; those who lord over us, know we are stuck and, worst of all, they know there is little we can do about!

"Today I have the privilege to be part of this historic occasion with representatives from the various political parties and the other sectors of our society gathered to discuss issues, share ideas and make recommendations on how we can accelerate the turnaround efforts of our country's economy,” said President Mnangagwa, according a Daily News report.

"This event is unprecedented by that it is the first of its kind to be organised by political actors from across the political divide under the banner of the POLAD.

"No one has the monopoly of ideas on how our country can speedily modernise, industrialise and develop.

"The forum is committed to take remedial steps to address and identify gaps to enhance economic stability, growth and sustainable economic development.” 

The imposition of POLAD and Mnangagwa’s insistence that it is the vehicle for Zimbabwe’s economic recovery epitomises why Zimbabwe is not only stuck but helplessly so!

Zimbabwe is in this economic mess because of 40 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption by this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. The nation has failed to remove the regime from office all these years because the party blatantly rigged the elections denying the people a meaningful say in the governance of the country. 

Ever since his taking over from Robert Mugabe in the November 2017 coup, Emmerson Mnangagwa has wanted to portray himself as different from Mugabe. Whereas Mugabe had been a control freak autocrat who considered even his own fellow senior Zanu PF leaders as intellectual midgets devoid of any ideas and leadership qualities. Mnangagwa readily admits to “no one has the monopoly of ideas”. It is not what he says but what he does that matters the most, of course.

First of all, Mnangagwa blatantly rigged the July 2018 elections; contrary to his promise to hold free, fair and credible elections and thus break with Mugabe days tradition; to secure his own position as the country’s next autocratic dictator. Second, he creates POLAD to corral all his political opponents for the sake of milking them of any ideas they have and, most important of all, to stop them criticising him and holding him to account. 

The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and political paralysis (having a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical ruling party, Zanu PF, and an equally corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless opposition parties) during Mugabe days was the dearth of open debate and democratic competition and accountability. We still have no meaningful public debate and no democracy in Mnangagwa’s new dispensation. 

"It is commendable that this forum is being attended by our development partners and members of the diplomatic corps, who are all indispensable partners to our economic development,” continued Mnangagwa.

"I call on you to bear with us as we implement our wide ranging reforms towards the speedy modernisation and industrialisation of our economy.”

Zimbabwe, the pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs under Mugabe, has remained unchanged under new management of Mnangagwa. It is infuriating that Mnangagwa should try to convince us there is change when absolutely nothing has changed. Worse still, it is even more infuriating that nations like the EU should even be encouraging him to believe he is on the right track for change when he is not! 

Zanu PF will never implement the reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections. Never! 

Of course, we are stuck and it is very patronising for countries like EU to pretend Zanu PF has changed when we all know Zimbabwe is pariah state and nothing has changed. Nothing! 

"Will not rest until Zanu PF is extinguished" - shadow boxing, failed to implement even one reform in 20 years N Garikai

As much as Zanu PF thugs would want to believe they will rule Zimbabwe until “donkeys have horns” the reality is that change is coming. The best they have managed to do is to delay change. Delay and stop are two totally different animals. Regime change is here, the party is imploding, the prelude to the change coming round the corner. 

The choice is between peaceful and orderly change or violent and disorderly one. Nelson Chamisa and his MDC friends have had many golden opportunities to implement the democratic reforms and thus deliver a peaceful and orderly end to the Zanu PF dictatorship. 

MDC had the chance to implement the democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when Mugabe and Zanu PF had their hands tied behind their backs by the Global Political Agreement (GPA). In signing the GPA Zanu PF had agreed on the need to implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and end the curse of rigged elections. 

It was MDC’s responsibility to implement the reforms. They failed to get even one reform implemented in five years of the GNU. Not one!

MDC leaders were warned not to participate in the elections without first implementing the reforms, Zanu PF would rig the elections. They would not listen.

What is worse, MDC leaders knew that by participating in the flawed elections they were giving the process “credibility” as David Coltart readily admitted in his book. 

“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 (2013) elections,” wrote Coltart, an MDC minister in the GNU.

“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.”

After Zanu PF rigged the 2013 elections, MDC leaders vowed not to participate in future elections until reforms were implemented. “No reforms, no elections!” stated the party's 2014 congress resolution. The resolution was soon ditched to participate in the 2018 elections for the same reason the party had not implemented the reforms during the GNU and had participated in the 2013 elections - greed.

Zanu PF had learned that it can continue rigging elections as long as it allowed the opposition to win a few gravy train seats; they will participate in the elections no matter what and give the flawed process credibility. The July 2018 elections were even more crowded than ever; there were a staggering 23 candidates in the presidential race alone. Even when it was known that ZEC has failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, that did not stop any opposition parties contesting!

“MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!” Chamisa boasted, just a few weeks before the July 2018 elections. 

After the elections Chamisa started complaining that the elections were rigged. The whole world has ignored him completely! 

MDC leaders have become more and more vocal and animated in their threats to remove Zanu PF from office,

“I will not rest until justice and a people’s government is put in place. I will never rest until Zanu PF is extinguished from the face of the earth,” said Job Sihkala, the combative MDC MP for Zengeza West.

“Zanu PF has killed so many people in our country that we cannot allow this regime to continue existing anymore. This is a regime where I call upon every Zimbabwean of normal circumstances to join us in the fighting.”

Strange that MP Job Sihkala and his fellow MDC leaders, Tendai Biti, David Coltart, Nelson Chamisa, etc. are now, seemingly, itching to take Zanu PF head-on in street protests regardless of Zanu PF's "shoot to kill" standing order. And yet the same MDC leaders, without exception, have all failed to fight off their individual demon of greed who has stopped them implementing even one reforms all these years and has forced them to participate, repeatedly, in flawed and illegal elections. 

Having secured their gravy train seats, secured at the price of forfeiting the easer and more straight forward option of ending the Zanu PF dictatorship by implementing the reforms, the MDC leaders now want the nation to join them in the more risky and violence street protest route. Our MDC champion gladiators have sold-out big time in the past and there is nothing to stop them doing so again and again. Nothing! 

MDC is calling for the people to join in the street protest to push Zanu PF to go into a power sharing arrangement, comparable to the 2008 GNU, in which Chamisa and a few other MDC leaders will be given cabinet positions. The 2008 GNU failed to implement even one democratic reform and there is nothing to suggest this new arrangement will do any better. Absolutely nothing!

 If MDC leaders were up to the task of implementing the democratic reforms and ending the Zanu PF dictatorship then they should have delivered the knockout punch after 20 years on the political centre stage. They have not done so because they have been shadow boxing. What every Zimbabwean of normal circumstances must do is accept the reality that MDC leaders have been breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent and should have been given their marching orders a long time ago. If we are serious about wanting an end to Zanu PF dictatorship then we must show it by election competent men and women who will implement the reforms! 

"Zanu PF depends on poverty and fear for hegemonic grip on the nation" - without reforms, grip will never be broken N Garikai

Last week, former Zanu PF Minister Walter Mzembi promised to spill the beans of how Zanu PF has been rigging elections. Those who know Mzembi is but a man of little substance, an intellectual midget masquerading as a Newtonian giant, did not expect much from his promised revelations. And long behold the Mzembi interview was nothing but a dump squib that phut and fizzled out!

“Zanu PF, and by extension its government, is held together by a culture of fear, intimidation, vengeance, retribution and violence,” Mzembi told Daily News.

“The merchandising of fear and retribution is the central theme of the Zanu PF bible and there is ample evidence to attest to this over the last 50 years … There are thousands of Zanu PF members who for fear of losing farms or business opportunities, jobs and food aid, stay beholden to a system their inner souls have long rejected and which they cannot proudly stand up and defend.”

He wittered on and on along the same lines. This is nothing new, many people with common sense had come to the same conclusion a long, long time ago and hence the reasons many Zimbabweans with half a brain left Zanu PF before independence or soon thereafter. Only a village idiot would freely choose to remain beholden to a regime riding roughshod over the nation’s hopes of freedom, justice and human dignity; the merchants of fear and retribution. 

If anyone expected Mzembi to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth; they were once again to be disappointed by the upstart! 

“Zimbabwe’s election history is replete with violence. Whilst they are held timeously, there are also simultaneous cycles of violence and because I was already an adult in the 1985 elections, the country witnessed heinous violence against Joshua Nkomo’s Zapu , Edgar Tekere’s Zum (Zimbabwe Unity Movement) in 1990, Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC in the 2000, 2002, 2005, 2008 and 2013 elections all of which are in the public domain. The 2008 elections, which resulted in the GNU of 2009-2013, tops the bill because of its unprecedented violence,” Mzembi continued.

“Every Zanu PF senior member knows who collapsed Mugabe’s peaceful rerun committee in 2008 and took charge of one of the country’s most violent electoral episodes. I was in this committee of 15 later 22, leading a subcommittee on business and traditional leaders with Sthembiso Nyoni … one day in May 2008, … Mnangagwa walked into our meeting and told everyone that he was now taking charge and these academic exercises we were engaged in were now over! Our rerun committee was sent packing and brutality of the highest order took over, Tsvangirai succumbed and the rest is history.”

No one would deny that the political violence in Zimbabwe reach a new epoch first during the Gukurahundi massacre and then during the 2008 presidential run-off. Everyone knows that Emerson Mnangagwa was Mugabe’s most trusted murderous henchman and it is not surprising he was at the head of all the dirtiest and bloodiest politically motivated horror to befall the nation these last 40 years of Zanu PF tyrannical rule. What Mzembi has not said is what role he himself has played in all these political shenanigans and horrors.

If Mzembi was in 2008 Zanu PF election committe until the “one day in May 2008” when Mnangagwa boot out Mzembi and the others; then he, Mzembi, should tell us the role his committe played in the blatant cheating in the counting of March 2008 votes. It took six weeks to declare presidential result. 

Years latter, Mugabe, in a Freudian slip, revealed that Morgan Tsvangirai had won 73%. It had taken six weeks to “cook” the vote count, to whittle the 73% down to 47%, to justify the presidential run-off.

So we are to award the Noble Peace Prize to Walter Mzembi and his “collapsed Mugabe’s peaceful rerun committee” although it was the one responsible for the blatant vote count cheating that made the run-off necessary.

Walter Mzembi joined Zanu PF out of his free will and rose through the ranks to become one of Robert Mugabe’s, Zimbabwe’s late murderous tyrant who ruled the country with an iron fist, blue eyed Ministers. Walter Mzembi did not carryout some of Mugabe’s dirties jobs such as mass murders, these were carried out by like of Mnangagwa and the other dung-battles; still Mzembi had no qualms dishing out the fear, intimidation, vengeance, etc. synonymous with being a Zanu PF thug. 

“Peace maker” Mzembi, just like many other Zanu PF leaders, grabbed for himself Banquest Chicken Farm in Masvingo  producing 100 000 chicks and 50 000 eggs per week and employing 200 workers. Production at Banquest Farm soon collapsed, just as happened on many other farms seized by Zanu PF triggering the collapse of the country’s once upon time very productive agricultural sector. 

Zanu PF is a party of ruthless thugs whose hunger for power, political power, wealth and extravagant lifestyle is insatiable. Whilst there was plenty of wealth to share out, it was easy to keep the party members united. Four decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption to feed the ever growing Zanu PF leaders’ appetites for loot have resulted in the total economic collapse. Zanu PF leaders have been fighting each other over the scraps. 

The November 2017 military coup that ousted Robert Mugabe and many of his G40 faction members including Walter Mzembi is a result of one of the factional fights that are tiring Zanu PF apart. Walter Mzembi’s confession was about discrediting Mnangagwa and his Lactose Zanu PF faction, a carry on of the Zanu PF factional wars and not about revealing the party’s vote rigging secretes. 

It is no secret that Walter Mzembi is the former Zanu PF leaders to form their own party which is set to challenge Mnangagwa and his faction for power in the next elections, in 2023. Mzembi was therefore not going to make a full confession of Zanu PF’s vote rigging activities and ruin his re-election back into office using the same dirty tricks or worse still incriminate himself for his rile in the rigging of past elections. 

After 40 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness that has earned Zimbabwe the pariah state label Zimbabwe is in total economic ruins. Unemployment has soared to 90%, schools and hospitals are barely functioning, in a region were 5% or less live in extreme poverty, Zimbabwe’s figure has soared to 34%!  

“Clearly, ‘the most potent weapon in the mind of the Oppressor is the mind of the Oppressed’ but for Zanu PF it is the desperation of the people arising out of the poverty this party and its government preside over and seek to perpetuate,” concluded Mzembi. 

“As long as the State has monopoly over food distribution, Zanu PF’s hegemonic grip on the masses will remain intact. This grip is most firm during by-elections when the entire State machinery descends on a ward conflated with Zanu PF campaigns.”

Once again, he is stating the obvious but one that is worth repeating and we have been very foolish to ignore. By making millions of our people poor and dependent on Zanu PF patronage the party has its vice grip on the people and power. 

The only sure way to break Zanu PF’s vice grip on the people - break the vicious cycle of the party rigging elections, abuse its power in office to undermine the people’s power and rig the next election - is for the country to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections. 

Since Zanu PF will never implement the reforms, the party will never ever reform itself out of office; we need an independent body to be appointed and entrusted with the task.

Zanu PF must step down to create the political space for the independent body. There is no doubt that Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections and the regime is, per se, illegitimate and hence the reason the country is a pariah state. 

As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state there will no meaningful economic recovery. No investor or lender wants to do business in a pariah state. Meanwhile the economic meltdown in Zimbabwe has reached the super critical level of economic, social and political instability. 

Zimbabwe cannot afford to remain a pariah state much less another rigged elections in 2023. Doing nothing to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and the economic mess and political paralysis it has caused in no longer an option! Zanu PF must step down a.s.a.p. and certainly before 2023!

If Zanu PF is allowed to remain in office till 2023, the party will rig that year’s elections, guaranteed.

Chamisa threaten "radical approach" to force ED into a new GNU - same s****t different day P Guramatunhu

“They will arrest and kill some of us, but no gun is more powerful than a conscious mind. Some people are saying why don’t you focus on 2023. That is foolishness. Foolishness is doing the same thing with no results. There has to be a radical approach, a disruptive approach,” said Nelson Chamisa, leader of MDC. 

Hah! So Chamisa has finally accepted that it is insane to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result! After 20 years on the political centre stage, elected there to delivery the democratic changes the nation has been dying for, and yet has nothing to show for it. 

The tragedy here is what he is calling “a radical approach, a disruptive approach” is nothing but the same foolishness, same s***t different day.

Mr Chamisa and his MDC friends were warned of the folly of participating in elections without first implementing the reforms - Zanu PF will rig the elections leaving the country stuck with the same corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical regime. 

“MDC President Nelson Chamisa says his party will engage in a radical approach and hold demonstrations to push President Emmerson Mnangagwa to the negotiation table and the implementation of political reforms ahead of the 2023 elections,” New Zimbabwe reported.

Chamisa wants him and Mnangagwa to the negotiate a power sharing arrangement in which he, Nelson Chamisa, and a few of his MDC friends will be allocated some cabinet positions in a Zanu PF and MDC joint cabinet. This will be a replica of the Government of National Unity (GNU) of 2008 to 2013 except that Chamisa is insisting in calling it a National Transition Authority (NTA). He is welcome to call the power sharing arrangement whatever he pleases, it is whether or not it will delivery any change. 

“It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white so long as it catches mice!” said Chairman Deng Xiaoping, the man credited with the modernising of China after the decades of chaos and misguided socialism ideological madness of Chairman Mao Zedong.

The acid test of the NTA is to implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections. The NTA is doomed to fail for two reasons:

1. Even if the mixed cabinet was to agree on the need for democratic reforms, it is for parliament to debate and agree on the details of the proposed reforms. Zanu PF, with its 2/3 majority in parliament, will never pass any meaningful reforms.

Zanu PF will never ever reform itself out of office; this is obvious but clearly not to Chamisa and company.

1. Zanu PF has all the four Aces up its sleeve! Zanu PF knows that MDC will demand to have the reform implemented and make all manner of threats of what the party will do if reforms are not implemented. But when the chips are down Chamisa et al will participate in the 2023 elections even if Zanu PF has not implemented even one token reform. 

MDC and the rest in the opposition camp have participated in flawed and illegal elections even when Zanu PF had failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll. Since the 2008 GNU, Zanu PF has learnt that the party can rig the elections all it wants and still have opposition participating to give the process legitimacy as long as it allowed them to win a few seats. And Zanu PF is going to spice up its bait!

Zanu PF is going to amend the constitution to create “the official leader of the opposition and shadow cabinet” who will be rewarded with ministerial limos and perks. The very thing Chamisa and company are ferreting for right now! There is the added attraction of another well funded Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) for the losers. The 2023 elections will be a hotly contested affair even with no reforms, no verified voters’ roll, etc. and Chamisa and his MDC will be right there in the thick of it!

We have all heard of the anecdotal story of the mental patient watering the garden using a leaking bucket and making no progress. Once in a while the penny will drop, the patient will acknowledge the problem of the leaking bucket but it is what he/she does next that will show they are not a full shilling!

“I will carry the bucket on my head!” And off they go with renewed vigour and enthusiasm!

For the last 20 years, the people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC leaders to power on the understanding the party will implement the democratic reforms and end the Zanu PF dictatorship. Not even one reforms has been implemented. Not one! 

The nation is still stuck with this corrupt, incompetent, voting rigging and tyrannical Zanu PF regime. And after 40 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and lawlessness; the country is in economic ruins, millions now live in abject poverty. The nation is desperate for a solution to end the Zanu PF dictatorship! 

“No gun is effective against a people who are resolute. We have given peace a chance. The regime must not take us for granted,” said Chamisa. And off he goes with his leaking political bucket!

“Hupenzi inyama yegakava!” (The insane are stubbornly single track minded!)

"Free elections are a process not event" - with will, 18/4/1980 event instead of 40+ year process W Mukori

Zimbabwe is facing a very serious social and economic crisis that is now causing untold human suffering and deaths and is threatening the country’s stability and that of the whole southern African region. What is disappointing about this crisis is that it is man-made. 

Zimbabwe has been stuck for 40 years and counting with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF regime. As much as the people have made a determined effort remove the regime from office; they have failed because Mugabe and his cronies have usurped the people’s freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. 

Worse still, all efforts to dismantle the de facto one-party, Zanu PF, dictatorship have all fit a brick wall because Zanu PF has insisted in being the one in charge of reforming the dysfunctional system. The party has made a big song and dance for every reforming step it has made; only to quietly take two or three steps backwards. Observe!

“We have taken note of European Union’s position with regard to its long-standing sanctions regime against Zimbabwe, and welcome its decision to further ease, albeit only slightly, those measures,” wrote Honourable Lt General (Rtd) Dr Sibusiso Moyo, MP (Zimbabwe) Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, as his signed statement proclaimed.

“We view this development as an acknowledgement of progress made in terms of the broad reform agenda we have set ourselves, and to which are fully committed. That reform agenda is a process rather than an event and it will take time to complete.

“We maintain that these and other sanctions measures imposed against Zimbabwe are unjustified and outdated; that they actually hinder our reform trajectory; and that all such measures should be removed - especially at a time when Government is confronted by the daunting consequences of natural disaster and devastating drought”

The sheer stupidity of it all is breath taking! I will just pick three points:

1. Let is be absolutely clear here that the so called “broad reform agenda” we are being told this Zanu PF government has “set ourselves and to which are fully committed” is the dismantling of the corrupt, tyrannical and omnipresent Zanu PF dictatorship and restoring the individual freedoms and rights. These are the same freedoms and rights the nation fought the biter civil war to secure. 

Instead of adopting a political system to guarantee the individual freedoms and rights Zanu PF fought hard to reject the multi-party democracy provisions in the 1979 Lancaster House Constitution. And, as we know, Mugabe had the provisions removed and imposed the de facto one party in the first decade of our independence. 

Zanu PF shed the blood of over 20 000 innocent Zimbabweans in the Gukurahundi massacre to force PF Zapu to sign the 1987 Unity Accord, marking the birth of the one-party dictatorship. And since the party has murdered over 10 000 to retain the dictatorship, 24 of them killed in the shoot to kill order to quell protests against the regime since the November 2017 military coup. 

The November 2017 military coup removed Robert Mugabe and replaced him with Emmerson Mnangagwa and was heralded as a departure from the dictatorship into a new democratic dispensation. The people were promised free, fair and credible elections; the regime refused to implement even one token reform and went on to blatantly rig the July 2018 elections. 

“That reform agenda is a process rather than an event!” the Minister tells us. Zimbabwe could and should have adopted a democratic constitution in which the freedoms and rights of all Zimbabweans including the right to free, fair and credible elections were guaranteed, if the Zanu PF nationalist leaders had wanted to. Zimbabwe’s first elections in 1980 and all that followed could and should have been free, fair and credible. 

Of course, free and fair elections are an event, Zanu PF wants it to be a process, a long drawn out process that has lasted 40 years and counting, because it suits the party’s no regime change dictatorial agenda!

The argument that the regime should be given more time to implement the democratic reforms given the “daunting consequences of natural disaster and devastating drought” underlines the arrogance and lack of sincerity with this regime. What is there in the drought that stopped Zanu PF producing a verified voters’ roll, a legal and common sense requirement, for the July 2018 elections!

1. The EU’s own 246 strong Election Observer Mission condemned Zimbabwe’s July 2018 elections as a farce. “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,” stated the Mission’s Final Report.

“As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards,” it concluded.

There was absolutely no rational reason why EU rewarded Zanu PF for blatantly rigging the July 2018 elections by removing all those on the targeted sanctions list except Mugabe, his wife and Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI). It is no secret that the EU lifted the sanction under pressure from member countries like Belgium who wanted to restore trading with Zimbabwe especially in diamonds and did not care that the EU was lifting the sanctions at the time when Zanu PF had just taken two giant steps backwards on democratic change. 

The November 2017 military coup was heralded as “a military assisted transition” by none other than Lt General Dr Sibusiso Moyo, the coup spokesperson. He, together with fellow coup leaders, Air Marshall Perence Shiri and ZDF commander General Constantino Chiwenga, retired soon after the coup to take up positions as government Ministers and VP for Chiwenga. 

Mugabe set up the Joint Operations Command (JOC), a junta comprising the top brass in the Army, Police, CIO and Prison Services, a select few from the party, Zanu PF with himself as the head and Mnangagwa as his assistant. JOC has always been the real power in Zimbabwe and the November 2017 coup has allowed many of its members to step out of the shadows, seize and exercise political power. 

The JOC transformed Zanu PF dictatorship of post November 2017 coup rigged the July 2018 elections to consolidate its political hold on power and the very fact that some nations have tacitly endorse the regime as legitimate by ignoring the blatant rigging is a bonus to Zanu PF.

1. The late Robert Mugabe has blamed all Zimbabwe’s economic problems on the “illegal sanctions imposed by the British Imperialists and their western allies”. It is now over a year ago since the EU lifted the targeted sanctions on every one except the three named above. 

So, other than the USA and two or three other countries that still have targeted sanction on some Zimbabwean individuals and entities; Zimbabwe has been “open for business” with the rest of the world, Mnangagwa’s clarion call since taking over from Mugabe. Sadly, the much anticipated economic recovery in the post November 2017 coup has failed to materialised.

Indeed, during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when Zanu PF chaotic and tyrannical excesses were held in check and the country has its best prospect ever of ending the dictatorship, there was a 9% economic growth in 2009, up from negative minus 6% the year before. The sanctions remained in place throughout the GNU - proof that the root causes of the economic meltdown are corruption, mismanagement, pariah state, etc. and not the sanctions.

“To the extent that this latest easing of EU sanctions signals a reciprocal willingness to move forward, it is, of course, a welcome gesture,” concluded Minister Moyo.

Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and ruthless thugs who have rigged the elections to stay in power against the democratic wishes of the ordinary Zimbabweans. 40 years of the corrupt and tyrannical rule have left the country in a serious economic mess, unemployment has soared to 90% and millions of Zimbabweans now live in abject poverty. The economic situation in Zimbabwe is unsustainable. 

The solution to Zimbabwe’s economic mess and political paralysis (the MDC opposition party has failed to end the Zanu PF dictatorship even when it had the golden opportunity to do so during the 2008 GNU) is for Zimbabwe to implement reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections. 

Since Zanu PF will not implement the reforms pressure must now be brought to bear on the regime to step down. Targeted sanctions are an integral part of this pressure; this is not the time for the EU to be easing its sanctions on the Zanu PF regime. The real welcome gesture from the EU is for the block to re-instate the sanctions!

"Mnangagwa is paying lip service to reforms" says US based think-tank - home truth Zimbabweans MUST deal with P Guramatunhu

“The influence of the military in Zimbabwean politics is reported to be on the ascendancy in politics, economy and government while the army generals have also been reported to be heavily involved in mining and fuel sectors as they increase their control under President Emmerson Mnangagwa's rule,” reported New Zimbabwe.

“This is an assessment contained in a study titled: "Assessing Continuity and Change After Mugabe", authored by Alexander H. Noyes and released this month by the US-based Rand Corporation.”

This only confirms the reality many of us knew but did not want to admit in the hope it will all go away. 

Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous Zanu PF thugs. All promise by Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe turning over a new page following the November 2017 military coup, promise of holding free and fair elections, promise of a new dispensation, etc. was all hot air. 

As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state there will be no meaningful economic recovery. The worsening economic meltdown is set to continue. 

"Even where limited progress has been made, such steps appear to be largely cosmetic, a mere box-ticking exercise. In other words, Mnangagwa is attempting to have his cake and eat it too, paying lip service to reforms in the hope of securing international support but staunchly refusing to implement any measures that might harm his and his closest supporters' political and economic interests," said Noyes in his report.

"To help the country repair from years of mismanagement, corruption, and State violence, international actors – including the United States – would be wise to push the government in a coordinated fashion to implement genuine political, economic, and security," he advised. 

The international community can help but Zimbabweans themselves must stand up to the demons amongst us!

Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies have always viewed Zimbabwe as their own personal property to exploit and dispose of as they wish. In the 40 years of the country’s independence they have enjoyed absolute power and grown addicted to being the top dogs, have lived in extravagant comfort and luxury and, to establish and retain the de facto one party dictatorship they have had to shed many innocent lives. 

Giving up power now is simply unthinkable for these Zanu PF thugs; there is their addiction to power, they stand to lose the fabulous loot and then there are all the skeletons from the past bound to be uncovered if they lost power.  

The price the nation has paid for Zanu PF rule has been astronomical in terms of looted wealth, lost opportunities and tyrannical oppression. Whatever debt of gratitude the nation owed to Zanu PF leaders for liberating the country from white colonial rule, has been repaid thousands of times over in silver, gold, tears and human lives. 

Enough is enough! The madness of Zanu PF rule must now be brought to an end!

It must be noted that ordinary Zimbabweans have risked life and limb to elect the late Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends into power on the promise they would help implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship. MDC has failed to implement even one reform in 20 years including the 5 years in the GNU. 

When MDC leaders got into power, the promptly forgot all about implementing the reforms. “Takatuma mapete kumukaka!” (MDC leaders are the fabled cockroach who forgot what he had been tasked after tasting milk!) 

If we are ever going to dismantle the Zanu PF autocracy then we must first acknowledge that MDC leaders are not up to the task. Second, we must be more diligent and scrupulous in our selection of leaders in we are to avoid repeating the same mistake of elections thugs and/or sell-out cockroaches!