By Nomusa Garikai- “The New Dispensation came with the clear goal to improve the plight of the majority of our people, through an elaborate agenda to reform, restructure and rebuild, towards achievement of Vision 2030. Undoubtedly, my Administration has faced many hurdles and attacks since inauguration.
“These included the divisive politics of some opposition elements, the illegal economic sanctions, cyclones, droughts and more recently, the deadly Covid-19 pandemic,” said President Emmerson Mnangagwa in his State Of the Nation Address.
The real nightmare, the now 40 years long nightmare, is being told that economic prosperity is just round the corner; when one can see this is just a lie. Meanwhile the country is sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss and one is totally helpless to do anything about it because those in power have their big boot on the nation’s neck, the people are powerless and utterly helpless.
Zanu PF has enjoyed absolute power for 40 years, the regime has always blamed everyone and everything else for the country’s problems but not the regime. It has always claimed to have all the answers and demanded of us to give it time to implement the solutions. After 40 years of chasing this mirage the people must now stand up and demand their meaningful say in the governance of the country. NOW and not in the distant future.
Zanu PF did not hold free, fair and credible elections in 2018 and this must be addressed now because if it is not address it will leave the door open for Zanu PF to rig the 2023 elections and thus perpetuate the regime’s tyrannical rule.
“We will defeat the attack on our economy. We make no apology for fixing our economy across the political, social and economic spectrum.
We will continue to strike a balance between peace and stability and protection of civil rights on the other hand,” continued Mnangagwa
Nonsense, you have failed to fix the economy and are denying the people the basic freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say on who governs the the country to silence them. Indeed, you are denying the people the basic right to a free and meaningful vote, the right to protest the country’s worsen economic meltdown, etc. precisely because you have failed to address the economic challenges. The the people silenced you can continue to loot the nation blind!
“”Seek ye first the political kingdom and all else shall be added onto you,” advised Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the man who led Ghana to independence.
The late Robert Mugabe and his fellow Zanu PF cronies were inspired by Dr Nkrumah, at least in as much as they sought the political power for themselves. Mugabe saw to it that the ordinary Zimbabwean never even tasted any meaningful power.
Zanu PF made it abundantly clear that if the party lost the 1980 elections, the country’s first all race elections, the civil war would continue. And so the people were denied their first free vote as they had no choice but to vote to end the war. Once in power Zanu PF has sort to consolidate its grip on absolute power by undermining the country’s democratic institution and usurping the people’s political power, freedoms and basic rights.
Today, with the country’s economy in total economic meltdown if is clear we lost our political power back in 1980 and everything else has been taken away form us. And so if we are serious about ending corruption, reviving the economic, etc. we must first implement the democratic reforms and restore our right to a meaningful vote.
Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends focused on reviving the economy during the 2008 to 2013 GNU and forgot about implemented the democratic reforms. They were putting the cart before the horse and hence got nowhere as soon after the the GNU Zanu PF was back in power.
The opposition, Tajamuka and other human rights activists have been calling for street protests to demand an end to corruption, poverty, human rights abuse, etc. The number one demand has to been democratic reforms to restore all individual freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections. For without meaningful political power everything else will be promised but never ever delivered.
Zanu PF blatantly rigged the July 2018 elections, just as the party has rigged elections since the 1980 elections. The regime has no mandate to govern, it is illegitimate and must step down.
What we want is democratic reforms leading to free and fair elections. Since Zanu PF will never implement the reforms, it has failed to do so in the past, the regime must step down to allowed others to do so.
“New Dispensation will improve people’s lives and deliver Vision 2030!” Well that is just a mirage and after 40 years of chasing one mirage after another it is insane to do so for one more day! It is an insult that our fundamental freedoms and rights should be bargained for an illusionary new dispensation vision 2030 mirage!