By Nomusa Garikai| I was both disappointed and ashamed to see President Mnangagwa make a complete fool of himself in his widely publicised, but wrongly named, article “Towards a new Zimbabwe.”

“In November, the Zimbabwean people, led by our youth, went to the streets peacefully and joyfully, determined to have their voices heard. They called for freedom, progress and a new way of doing things. Though supported by the military, this was a popular, peaceful revolution. Watching the events unfold from exile, I was deeply proud of my fellow Zimbabweans,” he started off.

The world woke up in the small hours of November 14th to the announcement that the Zimbabwe Defence Forces had seized strategic state institutions and the then President Mugabe was under house arrest. It was not until Saturday 18th that ordinary people poured into the street, in answer to the call from the war veterans, to pressure Mugabe to resign. To therefore suggest that events of the 18th led the events of four days earlier is a shameless attempt to distort historic facts.

Although there was no physical violence used to coerce Mugabe to resign, others around him were rough-up; Professor Jonathan Moyo and Saviour Kasukuwere were lucky to escape with their lives and a few security personnel lost their lives. What happened in November 2017 was a coup and there is nothing “peaceful” about a coup!

“Zimbabwe is changing — politically, economically and societally — and we ask those who have punished us in the past to reconsider their sanctions against us. Zimbabwe is a land of potential, but it will be difficult to realize it with the weight of sanctions hanging from our necks,” he continued.

Another blatant lie!

For decades the Zanu PF propaganda mill has blamed Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and the heart-breaking misery it has brought on the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans on sanctions. President Mnangagwa cannot talk of the post November coup as a new era and yet continue to peddle same lies of the Mugabe days.

Zimbabwe’s ruling elite are some of the richest individuals on earth, they have business assets worth millions of dollars, farms, mansions and enjoy extravagant and wasteful lifestyles. It is not sanctions that have made the filthy rich, rich; it is corruption. One does not need a university degree to see how the criminal waste of resources by the filthy rich has sucked the life out of the national economy resulting in the economic collapse and mass poverty.

It is the decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption, not sanctions, which are the root causes of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and abject poverty.

The reason why the people of Zimbabwe have mismanagement and corruption and have been allowed to grow and spread for the last decades is that the nation was stuck with a corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF government. The regime rigged elections making it impossible for the people to remove it from office.

For the last 20 years, at least, the people of Zimbabwe have been fighting for democratic change, reforms that will stop Zanu PF rigging elections and allow them to have a meaningful say in the governance of the country. The nearest the nation ever came to having their wish was during the GNU, if only the country’s opposition politicians had not sold-out and failed to get even one reform implemented in five years.

“I commit that in the new Zimbabwe, all citizens will have the right of free speech, free expression and free association. At the heart of this will be free and fair elections, to be held as scheduled in 2018, with all impartial observers who wish to witness the new Zimbabwean democracy at work welcome to attend. I extend that invitation once again,” President Mnangagwa promised in his article.

“Zimbabwe is changing, and quickly. So, in this light I urge the international community to heed the saying, “when the facts change,” change your minds.”

But that is just it, the facts on the ground have not change one bit and yet he expects everyone to see what is not there. President Mnangagwa has been promising free and fair elections and yet has stubbornly refused to implement the democratic reforms designed to take away Zanu PF’s carte blanche powers to rig elections.

Indeed, President Mnangagwa has retained the dictatorial power such as bribing the Chiefs with new trucks so they can continue to frog march villagers to vote for Zanu PF. Mnangagwa even has the chutzpah to denounce those calling for reforms as barking dogs!

Everyone with eyes, ears and a working brain can see that Zimbabwe is heading for yet another rigged election. It is disappointing that the people of Zimbabwe are once again being denied this basic human right.

The New York Times flattered President Mnangagwa by publishing his article, “warts and all” as Oliver Cromwell would have said. Sadly, for Mnangagwa the article all hot air and devoid of substance.

How is it possible in this time and age, 2 500 years after the Greeks gave the world democracy, we still have someone who has no clue what constituted free and fair elections, he is foolish enough to masquerade his stupidity on the world stage and, worst of all, he is, by military coup and rigged election, Zimbabwe’s President!

Of course, I am embarrassed for Mnangagwa, he has no sense of shame to have penned of such trash, and angry that the country should be so cursed to have such an empty head for president! “Towards a new Zimbabwe!” Mnangagwa claims and yet continues to hold the country to ransom, stuck with the same corrupt, vote rigging and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship or be it under new dictator, new management.- zsdemocrats.blogspot.co.uk