By Patrick Guramatunhu- The arrest of Hopewell Chin’ono comes as no surprise to me because I know Zimbabwe is a Banana Republic. Chin’ono exposed corruption in the regime and so the regime had him marked!
Zimbabwe is a Banana Republic, a pariah state, governed by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs. This is a fundamental reality that the people of Zimbabwe have stubbornly refused to acknowledge and thus to deal with these last 40 years. This is a folly that has haunted this nation and it is madness to continue to ignore!
Zanu PF blatantly rigged the July 2018 elections. The regime did not even have the decency to produce something as basic a verified voters’ roll, for Pete’s sake. The EU, the Americans and everyone else with some much as half a brain dismissed the elections as a farce. Everyone that is, except us, the people of Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe’s opposition participated in the elections with zeal; there were 23 candidates in the presidential race alone. Of course, all the opposition candidates KNEW with no implemented democratic reforms Zanu PF will rig the elections. God knows how many times that message had been hammered home. The opposition also knew that Zanu PF was giving away a few gravy train seats, bait to entice the opposition to participate and the bait was simply resistible.
It is the cold indifference of the Zimbabweans, especially the intelligentsia, to the political machinations of both Zanu PF and the opposition that have condemned the nation what it is today – a basket case of a failed state. Of course, Zimbabwean have known Zanu PF has rigged elections for the last 40 years but they have ignored that because acknowledging it would have forced them to end Zanu PF’s illegitimate rule.
Of course, most Zimbabweans now know that MDC leaders are breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent and that they sold-out big time in failing to implement the democratic reforms; there is overwhelming evidence to prove it. Yet many still continue to support the sell-out opposition leaders out of sheer intellectual laziness.
The arrest of Hopewell Chin’ono is yet another reminder that Zimbabwe is a Banana Republic, a pariah state, ruled by the whims of ruthless dictators. What Chin’ono did was to expose the US$ 60 million Drax scandal which led to the arrest and firing of the then Minister of Health, Obadiah Moyo. There are a lot of other big fish implicated in this scandal including Mnangagwa’s own son. But worst of all corruption, vote rigging and other scandals are the life blood of a Banana Republic, stamp them out and the Zanu PF dictatorship will shrivel and die.
Zanu PF cannot afford a hasty retreat on such fronts as corruption, democratic reforms, etc., the core of its political patronage system, and thus loose its iron grip on power. Hence the reason those like Chin’ono who are forcing the regime to address such issues as corruption must be arrested and silence.
The Drax scandal has echoes of the Willowvale Motor scandal. Godfrey Nyarota, then Chronicle Editor, documented how the Zanu PF ruling elite had used their political clout to buy new vehicles at low controlled prices only to sell for profit. Mugabe was not amused by Nyarota’s expose and had promoted upstairs to supervise the newspaper’s messengers and cleaners.
The worst thing that has happened to Zimbabwe was to have found herself stuck with this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for the last 40 years. The regime’s blundering incompetence is taking the nation deeper and deeper into this hell-on-earth.
The prospect of this vote rigging Zanu PF regime remaining in office the next three years is unthinkable, in terms of the unfathomed new depths of economic and political depravity the regime will drag us into. But worst of all, if Zanu PF is in office till the next elections then the party will rig these elections to extend its tyrannical rule.
How to break Zanu PF iron grip on power is the number one challenge this nation has faced since independence in 1980. So far, the nation has lacked the vision, courage and not even the common sense to deal with the challenge!
Nations get the government they deserve; we in Zimbabwe certain deserve this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with the entourage of equally corrupt and useless opposition parties, all 130 of them at the last count.
Zimbabweans boast of being one of the most literate nation in Africa and yet we cannot define what constitute free and fair elections, in this day and age! Of course, we deserve Zanu PF, the economic meltdown, arrest of Chin’ono to protect the corrupt and worse more to come!