By Comrade Ostallos
1. Mining gold Mafia
In February and March 2023 Al Jazeera produced a documentary that provides shocking evidence of how minerals in Zimbabwe are being smuggled out of the country for a song. The revelation provided further proof of why Gold production inspite of contributing more than 33% of mineral production in Zimbabwe only contributes less than 1 % tax revenue. The documentary showed how a well oiled state sponsored machinery is using money laundering tactics to smuggle the precious mineral to Dubai and other places . But perhaps the most shocking revelation was that Wmmedson Mnangagwa himself was fingered as being the king pin of the smuggling ring. As usual inspite of being presented with insurmountable evidence to date no arrest or public enquiries were undertaken instead the looting continues
2- Economic comatose
2023 has been probably the worst year in the last 5 years economically speaking Zimbabwe . According to Prof@Stevehanke Zimbabwe has been trending as the country with the worst inflation in the world for most of 2023 at times reaching more than 900%. This has manifested in extreme poverty with 42% of the country being put on hunger watch for the first quarter of 2024. As a result productivity has slowed due with agriculture production being hard hit with Zimbabwe not able to meet their maize requirements . Wheat farmers continue to face delayed payments ….
3/ Continued Persecution, abduction , harassment, torture and murder of activists….
In 2023 the continued incarceration of Job Sikhala is a stain on democracy in Zimbabwe . Job has served 2 years in prison without a conviction. He has so far been acquitted for 2 of his cases but remains in prison . The opposition and international agencies have all made a call for his release which has been ignored by the regime . This year also saw Jacob Ngarivhume being arrested for 8 months only for him to be acquitted in the Supreme Court (??) … On …. Bishop Tapfumaneyi Masaya was abducted by identified aisalants from Zanu Pf he was to be found two days later murdered. No investigation or arrests have been made. In … An opposition activist was murdered while going to attend a rally ahead of the elections it is believed he was murdeeed by zanu pf youth . Students activist continued to be arrested and harassed arbitrarily by police…
4/ failed election reform
After 42 years of misrule zanu pf priced once again that they have no appetite for a democratic state. The world over was watching to see if Zimbabwe would have any electoral reform as it delivered 23 August general election …. However unanimous commentary concluded the elections were not fair and not credible . In an unprecedented standard voters were queuing for more than 24 hours on election day . Also the case of Bulawayo 22 whom were initially removed from the ballots after nominations so court and were later reinstated following Supreme Court appeal . Continue assisted voting , voter harassment by FAZ especially in rural areas … Chiefs etc
Human rights and election reform were both precursors to the debt crisis reform. The failure to address this has meant Zimbabwe cannot get the assistance it requires.
5. failure to alleviate water crisis … the zanu pf Gvt gas failed to supply clean and safe water . The biggest testament to this has been the Current cholera crisis. This outbreak first struck back in February and as October ended official figures from the Health and Childcare Department are listing nearly 6,000 cases and some 123 suspected deaths. Cholera is cheap to treat with rehydration salts – and easy to avoid altogether if people have access to clean water and decent toilet facilities.
6. Failure to address electricity shortage
Zimbabweans electricity crisis appeared to superficially ease of between march and June I.e. in the period ahead of elections . However inspite of spending over US$1.4bn Zimbabwe continues to rely on the old units to generate less than half what the country requires. The thermal units are consistently failing which means at times even the half that is anticipated isn’t produced.
7. further subjugation of the people’s will
Following the election September 2023 witnessed the onset of a bizarre set of events. In these events a state sponsored proxy was used to facilitate the recall of CCC members of parliament who had been voted for and sworn in just less than a month before. Inspite of CCC vehemently stating to the speaker of parliament that this was an unknown assailant without recourse the actions of their letter were upheld by the speaker . This was the beginning of an onslaught on CCC which carries on to date. It beggars belief that the courts have also been used by the state in this plot. The extent to which courts have been used include the delivery of midnight judgements to take ccc candidates off the ballots to ensure default wins for zanu pf . Never in the history of this country has such blatant demonisation of the people suffrage rights. One of the default zanu pf wins ( I.e. was not elected m) has been someone who was also identified in the hold mafua documentary as an ‘official smuggler’ Scott sakupwanya is not zanu pf mp for Mabvuku which is a zanu pf strong hold ….
2023 has shown zanu pf is not only incompetent but also doesn’t have the will to change things for the better in Zimbabwe ..