By Patrick Guramatunhu- “Muromo hauzarirwi nerwizi!” (There is no flooded river that big mouth cannot cross!) so goes the Shona adage. President Mnangagwa, big mouth, told the nation in his State of Nation Address there is no flooded river he cannot cross.
“The world is in crisis. Borders have been closed, trade has ceased and businesses negatively impacted by the deadly Covid-19 pandemic,” he acknowledged.
“As elected leaders, we have to take the responsibility of providing solutions, ensuring stability and setting direction in the midst of it all.”
Zanu PF has blatantly rigged elections ever since the party got into power in 1980. Mnangagwa disregarded his own promise to hold free, fair and credible elections and, once again, blatantly rigged July 2018 elections.
“The final results as announced by the (Zimbabwe) Electoral Commission (ZEC) contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability,” stated the EU Zimbabwe Election Mission final report. “As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”
ZEC failed to produce something as basic a verified voters’ roll, a common sense and legal requirement, for Pete’s sake!
Zimbabwe’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections is a particularly sore point because it is the root cause of the country’s political paralysis and economic meltdown. The country has been stuck for 40 years and counting with this vote rigging, corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF regime and the decades of misrule have left the country is ruins.
But most annoying of all, Mnangagwa’s repeated claim that the July 2018 elections were free, fair and credible and this Zanu PF regime is legitimate means the party will resist all calls for the implementation of democratic reforms necessary to end this curse of rigged elections. The prospect of yet another rigged elections in 2023 is simply unthinkable.
After 40 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule, the one thing Zimbabwe needs above all else is free, fair and credible elections, the pre-requisite for good governance. Our task is to make sure the democratic reforms are implemented before the next elections. We must not allow ourselves to be bamboozled by the nonsensical claims of an illegitimate tyrant!
“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 the achievement of Vision 2030. Undoubtedly, my administration has faced many hurdles and attacks since its inauguration,” continued Mnangagwa.
“These included the divisive politics of some opposition elements, the illegal economic sanctions, cyclones, droughts and more recently, the deadly Covid19 pandemic. Added to this, is economic aggression, local currency manipulation and detractors who fear the inevitable imminent success of our reforms.”
All nonsense! The one clear and stated goal of the new dispensation was “Restore legacy!”, as the November 2017 coup plotters stated. The wholesale looting of diamonds in Marange and Chiadzwa and other national resources that had flourished during Mugabe’s days took off once again with renewed vigour.
In a very rare moment of honestly, Mugabe admitted the country was “swindled out of US$15 billion in diamonds!” He never arrested one swindler or recover one dollar. Mnangagwa promised “zero tolerance to corruption” when he took over following the November 2017 coup.
The only diamond swindler he has dared to go after is former Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri, for political and personal reasons. Other than that, nothing has change corruption has continued!
The IMF, WB and many other international financial institution have stopped giving Zimbabwe any financial assistance, some have even cut back on aid donation; they fear the money will be wasted – such is the country’s corruption reputation.
Of course, there is no hope of this corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF regime reviving the economy, much less attaining the middle income status by 2030. Prosperity is build of sound economic policies and good governance not voodoo-economics and corruption.
Zanu PF has promised mass economic prosperity, “Gutsa ruzhinji” as Mugabe called it in the 1980s, but not now but in the near future. Meanwhile the people were told they had to work hard and endure hardships to earn the prosperity. The ruling elite did not share in the hardship, indeed they have prospered by leaps and bounds.
For 40 years now the people have waited for their day to bask in economic prosperity, they are now to wait until 2030, meanwhile they are to endure even worse economic hardship as the nation sinks deeper and deeper into the abyss.
Of course, vision 2030 is a mirage, the same mirage the nation has been chasing since 1980! And without good governance, economic prosperity will remain a mirage – that is a fact!
Zimbabwe’s economic mess and its collapsed health care service at the outbreak of the corona virus outbreak meant the country was going to be hit hard. Zanu PF’s blundering incompetence has certainly made the situation worse. The regime’s failure to test for the virus aggressively, for example, meant those with the infection have been left in the community to infect others, thus spreading the virus far and wide, when they should have been in isolation.
Mnangagwa, just like President Xi Jinping of China, is obsessed about keeping the confirm covid-19 cases and deaths as low as possible, to hide his blundering incompetence in the handling of the virus.
There is evidence to show that China denying the corona virus outbreak and then then for a while under reported corona virus cases and deaths. At least the Chinese government did mobilised the necessary resource to get the virus back under control. The same cannot be said about this Zanu PF government.
Officially, Zimbabwe has 4 221 confirmed covid-19 cases and 81 deaths compared to SA’s 521 318 cases and 8 884 deaths but only because Zimbabwe has not been testing even those with covid-19 symptoms! one expects Zimbabwe, with 1/4 the population of SA, to have 1/4 of SA’s cases and deaths or 130 000 and 2 221 respectively.
So, as of now, there are 40 times as many covid-19 cases and deaths spreading the virus blissfully unaware they have the virus all because, to look good, the regime did not want the truth told. The Zanu PF regime has already passed a law to punish, up to 20 years in jail, anyone reporting anything other than the government vetted covid-19 figures.
“Accountability and transparency will keep on being enforced in every facet of our society. These values are, after all, the DNA of the Second Republic and must permeate all our institutions. Our political reforms have equally been guided by these twin concepts. We repealed and replaced POSA and AIPPA in the spirit of these ideals,” continued Mnangagwa.
Zanu PF’s DNA is that of a corrupt, incompetent murderous and vote rigging dictatorship and, like all dictatorship with knack for saying one thing and doing the opposite. Indeed, Zanu PF has always had the courage to rig elections and claim the elections were free and fair precisely because the regime is not democratically accountable to the people.
Zimbabwe will remain stuck in this political and economic hell-on-earth we find ourselves in until country implements the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections. Zanu PF is in denial that the party rigged the last elections, it cannot be trusted to implement any meaningful reforms. The party must step down, this is the only way out and it is not negotiable.
“Although our progress has been slowed down, rest assured that we shall achieve our objectives. We will overcome. We will defeat the attack and stop the bleeding of our economy. We will overcome attempts at destabilisation of our society by a few rogue Zimbabweans acting in league with foreign detractors.”
This is just foolhardy political intransigency of a regime that does not accept its failures and, unforgivable of all, deny the people their fundamental right to have a meaningful say in the governance of country. Zimbabwe is a failed state and the threat of the country descending into instability, violence and chaos is real.
And it is you President Mnangagwa and your Zanu PF cronies who have dragged the nation to the edge of the precipice, you must step back. Calling those crying for change and justice rogues and detractors is not going to get the country out of this mess or end the tragic human suffering!
It is for you, Mr Mnangagwa, to step back from the abyss and step down! Step down now before you take us all over the edge!