"No one will starve!" Forget the indirect deaths, account for 40 000 plus Zanu PF politically motivated murders! W Mukori

 "As I stated in my recent declaration of a nationwide state of disaster due to the drought last week, our Zanu-PF government will not let anyone starve," Mnangagwa said.

"Our government is capable of handling this situation.”

The bottomline is Zanu PF has made many, many promises which it failed to keep and there was damn well nothing anyone could do about it. The regime is not democratically accountable to the people and so it will do as it damn well please.  

One of the advantages of being a dictatorship is that you can promise the moon on a silver platter and deliver hell and get away with it again and again. 

Ever since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980 Zanu PF has promised the people of Zimbabwe freedom, peace, justice, economic development and prosperity. Three years after independence in 1983 Zanu PF launched its Gukurahundi massacre aimed at forcing PF Zapu, the party’s main political challenger, to give up its independence and join Zanu PF. Dr Nkomo relented in 1987, after 20 000 civilians murdered, and signed the unity accord opening the door to the imposition of the de facto one party state we have to this day. 

The regime has murdered another 20 000 plus since the Unity Accord to maintain its strangle hold on absolute power. 

When Mnangagwa seized power in the 2017 military coup he promised to stamp out corruption and most important of all to hold free, fair and credible elections. He promised the latter to placate the world at large following his military coup but did not bother to implement even one reform. Only the very naive believed he would keep his promise of holding free elections. He ignore the promise to stamp out corruption because no one was going to hold him to account.

Mnangagwa blatantly rigged the 2023 elections, both SADC and AU election observers condemned the elections and, per se, this regime is illegitimate. It is naive to think the nation will hold Mnangagwa and company to democratic account if they failed to keep their promise. What has changed, one might as well ask! 

"Has MDC/CCC failed the people of Zimbabwe?" asked BBC HardTalk. Sikhala was too dumb to admit it. W Mukori

 I had heard in advance that Zimbabwe’s opposition leader, Job Sikhala, will be on BBC HardTalk. I did not want to miss it. I would not have missed much if I did!

Let’s just say Sikhala had his half-hour on the “premier league” media stage and he wasted it!

Stephen Sackur: Why has Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, CCC, collapsed in such a spectacular way? Should we blame Chamisa for creating a party that did not have a constitution? Or should we blame Zanu PF because Chamisa said the ruling party infiltrated CCC and he would not swim in a river full of hungry crocodiles?

Job Sikhala: Mnangagwa has expertise in infiltrating and destroying other political parties?This did not start today and went on and on — — — — -

SS: We do not have the time to go through the whole history of Zimbabwe politics since independence. Please address this question: Do you think the opposition has failed the people of Zimbabwe who are facing so many serious economic and political challenges?

JS: What is in the mindset of the people of Zimbabwe is the opposition. They despise and loth Zanu PF. - - - - And he once again took off on yet another tangent. 

Zimbabwe is a failed state; 44 years under this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship has taken a heavy toll on the nation economically, socially and politically. 

Still, it must be said, the Zanu PF dictatorship would have never lasted all those the 4 decades if the country’s opposition leaders had implemented the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections as promised. Morgan Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC friends failed to implement even one reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when they had the best chance ever to do so.

Robert Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office and, in return, Tsvangirai and company forgot about the reforms. Not even the nagging by SADC to implement reforms got the MDC leaders to budge an inch. 

And even since the GNU debacle, MDC/CCC leaders, including Mr Job Sikhala, have participated in flawed elections knowing fully well that Zanu PF was rigging and that participating would give the regime legitimacy. Still they participated, even conned the public to do the same, out of greed; as David Coltart a senior MDC/CCC leader admitted.

“The (2013) 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,” confessed David Coltart in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.

“Has MDC/CCC failed the people of Zimbabwe?” The simple and honest answer is, yes. But Job Sikhala nor many of his fellow opposition leaders will ever admit it; they are too dumb to ever realise they are corrupt and incompetent, much less correct it, and hence the reason they continue to blunder from pillar to post!

CCC are Zanu PF team B in all but name, it's foolish not to deny it. W Mukori

 There is a mountain of evidence to prove that MDC/CCC is Zanu PF team B in all but name. 

MDC/CCC leaders, especially during and since the 2008 to 2013 GNU, have  played the role of Zimbabwe’s main opposition party but one that understood its role was to ensure that:

1. a) Zanu PF (team A) must win the majority in parliament, senate and the presidency (for this to happen Zanu PF must retain its carte blanche powers to rig elections and so MDC/CCC leaders paid lip service to democratic reforms but have never ever implemented even one token reform to upset the apricot.)

2. b) No matter how flawed and illegal the electoral process got (Zanu PF team A has to do whatever it deems necessary to win) MDC/CCC Must participate in the elections and con the public into believing the opposition has devised all manner of winning in rigged election strategies making reforms unnecessary. The opposition must make sure Zanu PF has political legitimacy no matter what!

Both Zanu PF and MDC/CCC have benefited from the political deception: the former has returned its iron grip on absolute power these last 44 years and the the later have settled for a share of the spoils of power. 

It is the ordinary Zimbabweans who have paid dearly as the nation has been stuck with the corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF regime for 44 years. The economy is in ruins and millions are living in abject poverty and with no hope of any meaningful end to the dictatorship the future is grime. 

The truth is the people themselves are their own worst enemy; they have refused to open their eyes and minds to see and comprehend the reality that Zanu PF and MDC/CCC are conniving to deny them, the people, their freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life!

There is a mountain of evidence of Zanu PF and MDC/CCC political connivance:

1. i) MDC/CCC failure to implement even one token reform in 23 years including 5 in the GNU 

2. ii) MDC ignored SADC advice not to participate in 2013 elections without implementing the reforms

3. iii) MDC/CCC participating in flawed elections out of greed to give Zanu PF legitimacy. “The (2013) 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,” confessed David Coltart in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe. 

4. iv) Chamisa’s stubborn insistence on participating in flawed elections claiming he has “stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging” or has “plugged all vote rigging loop hole”.

5. v)Chamisa’s lawyers refusal to have the sealed ballot boxes in the 16 Polling Stations in which 2 stations posted identical results and Mnangagwa had a commanding lead. Etc., etc.!

One can excuse the rural voters for failing to see what Zanu PF and MDC leaders are up to; after all they, more than any other section of society, feel the tyrannical Zanu PF boot on their neck. The rural people are nothing but serfs terrorised by the overbearing Zanu PF operatives and traditional leader proxies. 

There is no excuse for Zimbabwe’s intelligentsia and urban dwellers for their failure to end the political madness that has made Zimbabwe a laughing stock, the world’s textbook case of a failed state. 

“No amount of evidence can persuade an idiot,” said Mark Twain.

And there is no greater idiot than he who would not open his eyes and mind to see and comprehend the evidence before him!

“Zimbabwe needs political change and not currency change!” That's rich coming from one who sold out on reforms! W Mukori

 “ZIMBABWE NEEDS POLITICAL CHANGE NOT A CURRENCY CHANGE.... A currency is a bundle of trust and confidence. A currency is not a currency without confidence and value,” wrote Nelson Chamisa in his latest “epistles”.

“Money represents a collective trust in the stability and reliability of the government. Its value is derived from the amalgamation of this confidence.

“Instead of introducing a structured currency, we need a conversation that produces a Citizens-backed structured political change and new government.”

What political change have you and your fellow MDC/CCC leaders brought?

Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 2023 elections and got away with it scot-free thanks to MDC/CCC leaders’ failure to deliver and democratic reforms to stop the regime rigging elections. By the late 1990s, the people of Zimbabwe knew that Zanu PF leaders were corrupt, incompetent and the regime was dragging the whole nation into economic ruins. But as long as the party was able to rig elections and impose itself on the nation, there was nothing the nation could do to stop the rot.

The nation realised that they must elect opposition leaders whose number one task would be to implement democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging elections. Nothing of any substance could ever be accomplished as long as Zanu PF retain the carte blanche dictatorial powers to rig elections. Nothing!

Zanu PF was not going to implement any reforms to end its dictatorial powers; that is self evident. 

Chamisa and his MDC/CCC friends have failed to implement even one token reform in 23 years including 5 years in the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Worse still, they have been participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy out of greed. What is more, they knew all this!

“The (2013) 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,” confessed David Coltart in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.

So what is Chamisa wittering about, “Zimbabwe needs political change and not currency change”, when he and his friends are the ones who have not only stopped political change taking place but have given vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy and thus help it stay in power!!

The people’s failure to clearly define what it is exactly they wanted the opposition to do - implement the democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging elections and know how the said reforms are, how they are implemented, etc. - has allowed MDC/CCC leaders to sell out on reforms and get away with it. After 23 years and not even a token reform implemented the penny should have dropped by now that Chamisa and company are not up to the task!

"What reforms do we need to stop Zanu PF rigging elections?" Easily forgotten! "Kukanganwa chazuro nehope!"

 In his book, Animal Farm, George Orwell, describes how Boxer, the horse, took as long to learn the first four letters of the alphabet as others took to learn all the 26 letters. Worse still, it took him as long as again to learn the next four letters and, worst of all, by then he had forgotten the first four letters!

A powerful metaphor for stagnation! 

Talk of stagnation; Zimbabwe is a failed state and all because we have failed to govern ourselves. We are stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF regime; the party has remained in power to do as it damn well pleased these last 43 years and counting because it has blatantly rigged and got away with it scot-free! 

The solution to Zimbabwe’s double curse of rigged elections and bad governance is obvious: implement the democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging elections. I have called for reforms incessantly some people have started calling me “Mr Reforms.” Worst of all, they are adamant that nothing, including implementing the reforms, can be done to NOT stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. Nothing!  

“You have not addressed the how to implement the democratic reforms. Remember Zanu PF’s arrogance and intransigence. Mnangagwa is on record boating that Zanu PF owns the judiciary, the police ,the army, the law makers, the decision makers and everything you can think of and indeed they do. Tell us how to untie the Gordian knot,” said one critic.

“For starters, what do you suggest that we need to do in order to stop Zanu PF from rigging elections?” asked the second.

“Which reforms will stop all this madness?” commented the third. 

“We have asked several times to give us a list of reforms.

“It seems the people calling for reforms do not know what reforms will end the lawlessness - just like the villagers in Gutu.

“I think we should stop using the plain word REFORMS without substance!”

By the late 1990s it was clear Zimbabwe was is serious economic and political trouble because the party that had ruled the country since independence in 1980 was corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs. The people realised that as long as Zanu PF retained its carte blanche tyrannical powers including the dictatorial powers to rig elections there will be no end to our troubles. The nation reached a consensus; we needed democratic changes, reforms, to stop Zanu PF rigging elections.

Morgan Tsvangirai and his friends launched their party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 1999 in response to the nations political consensus. For decades the party supporters have chanted “Change! Chinja! Guqula!”

So after 23 years of chanting “Change!” “Reform!” to be asking what are changes/reforms is nothing short of metaphoric Boxer, the horse, forgetting the first four letters of the alphabet. It would be futile to address the question of what reforms and other related questions above just as it was futile to teach Boxer the alphabet in a never ending cycle! 

  

If I have answered the question what reforms and many like it once, I have answered the question a thousand times! I am not interested in answering these questions again, on the contrary I am as keen as mustard to find the answers to the parallel questions born out of the political stagnation.

Why is it that 43 years after independence, 2 500 years after the Greeks bequeathed mankind the gift of democracy, we still have Zanu PF blatantly rigging elections and getting away with it scot-free? 

Why is it that we have failed to understand what constitute free, fair and credible elections? 

We are not being asked to reinvent the wheel, democracy, but to adopt it for our own benefit. Why is it that we are failing to embrace the rule of law, justice and liberty? Why are we failing to govern ourselves for our own good?

Why is it that even now, 2 500 years after the ancient Greeks, we see but fail to perceive; we hear but never understand? 

Bless are these who see and perceive, who hear and understand. 

We have all the information we need to end this nightmare of rigged elections and bad governance, it is not rocket science. All we need to do is open our eyes and minds.

“What do you suggest that we need to do in order to stop Zanu PF from rigging elections?” Yeah right! No wonder Zimbabwe is a failed state, how can we ever make any progress on anything when the same thing must be repeated over and over again because we have such short memories we cannot remember what happened yesterday. 

We have learned nothing because we easily and readily forget.  “Kukanganwa chazuro nehope!” as one would say in Shona! 

Zimbabwe’s political system is a rat race and antagonists' trump cards are betrayal and deception. W Mukori

 Zimbabwe’s political system is not a caucus race but a rat race!

A caucus race according to Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland,”!

“After swimming around in Alice's pool of tears, the animals need to dry off, and The Dodo recommends a caucus race. There are no rules; all of the participants run haphazardly around in no particular direction, and everyone wins.”

At least the caucus race had a beginning, an end and a purpose - an unusual one admittedly - to dry off.

Zimbabwe politics is best described as a rat race in which the main political leaders talk endlessly about their “vision”; Zimbabwe is locked in perpetual election mode! The primary purpose of these never ending Sermon on the Mount visions is to confuse the ignorant and gullible electorate by setting them in the vaguely defined future. The mirage serves the double purpose of getting the gullible public to focus on a brighter tomorrow to take the attention away from their present miseries . And so the leaders have never ever had to acknowledge much less held to account for the many broken promised and unfulfilled visions.

Last week it was Mnangagwa in Dakar Senegal who told the Zimbabweans and the world at large that from next year onward Zimbabwe will be producing enough wheat to meet the nation’s needs with surplus for export; come the severest El Nino come La Nina! The country will build dams, install irrigation plant and will have factories to produced all the fertiliser!

He did not want to be questioned on why Zimbabwe once upon a time the bread basket of the region had lost this laurel under Zanu PF rule? And no doubt, would have stormed out of the country in a huff is any journalist had questioned him on why both AU and SADC election observers had condemned Zimbabwe’s 2023 elections as flawed and illegal. 

Mnagagwa had promised to hold free, fair and credible elections when he took over from his mentor Robert Mugabe following the military coup of November 2017. Here was a promise - no, an obligation - he was duty bound to honour but failed to because he wanted to retain absolute power to himself and his fellow Zanu PF cronies for selfish reasons. 

Today it Nelson Chamisa’s turn to proclaim his mirage vision!

“My vision and mandate is to RADICALLY TRANSFORM Zimbabwe into a fully developed and advanced modern nation,” proclaimed Chamisa from the highest ant-hill he could find!

He envisioned “a Zimbabwean democracy that is robust, transparent, and accountable, where the voices of all citizens are heard and respected.”

Yeah right! And he would achieve by winning “big” rigged Zanu PF elections as he promised to do last year! “I have plugged all Zanu PF vote rigging loop holes.” he insisted. “God is in it!”

All nonsense, of corse! Chamisa and company were hell bent on participating in the 2023 elections knowing fully well Zanu PF was rigging, that participating would give Zanu PF legitimacy but still they persisted because they also knew that Zanu PF was giving away a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to participate in numbers. And they found the bait irresistible. 

The plugging the vote rigging loop holes bulls**t was to hide the real reason for participating was greed. The tragedy is many Zimbabweans, nearly two million according to ZEC declared results, believed the bulls***t and participated in the flawed elections to give the election process some modicum of credibility and giving vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. 

The nearly two million who voted for Chamisa have not even had the chance to ask him why CCC had failed to win last year, as he had promised. They have never asked why MDC/CCC had failed to implement even one token democratic reform to stop Zanu PF rigging elections and yet this was the number task the opposition was elected to do these last 23 years including the 5 years in the GNU!

The rat race of Zimbabwe politics does not allow the voters time to ask any searching question much less hold the leaders to account. There is no time for that - the leaders see to it that there is no time for it as the voters are whipped up into one political stampede after another. 

“#AccleratedTransformation” Chamisa signed off! 

On the ground the only accelerated transformation in Zimbabwe is the economic meltdown and political chaos. Mnangagwa’s number one priority is not to feed the nation but to consolidate his own hold on power through political patronage and so corruption and mismanagement have gone into overdrive accelerating the economic meltdown. The price of one crystal sweet is Z$ 400, in keeping with Zimbabwe’ runaway hyperinflation which is now over 2 000%.

Zimbabwe’s present political system, this rat race, has produced corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless leaders; not the quality leaders the nation needs to prosper. We need a reality check; we must reject the failed system and end the 44 years of madness, of being dragging deeper and deeper into the abyss. Both Mnangagwa and Chamisa, Zanu PF and CCC have nothing of value to offer this nation. Nothing!