38 years of blundering

There is a growing hunger by an ever-increasing pool of Zimbabweans to engage in serious debate and search for the country’s way out of this hell-on-earth mess the nation finds itself in.

Mnangagwa is a corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrant who thinks he can deliver democracy and yet still hold on to the dictatorship.

“The hunger for power and its subsequent misuse, even above national interest and institutions, is what has been at the centre of Zimbabwe's decline,” writes Gwede.

“Yet, there appears to be some belief that change can occur without addressing this fault.

“Events since November through to the July election can testify to how the "new" ruling circle represents that rule-less politics.”

Actually, the Zanu PF leaders’ love of absolute power and the blind pursuit of power regardless of the consequences goes back to the formative days of the party itself. It is no secret that Mugabe and his fellow nationalist have always wanted to impose a one-party state for no other reason than that it was the only political system that would guarantee absolute power for themselves.

Yes, Mugabe and the rest in Zanu PF started off, in the fight to end white colonial rule, with “One person, one vote!” Of course, they knew that they could not have their one-party state and still have “One person, one vote!” They ditched the latter!

When the Lancaster House Constitution imposed the multi-party democratic system on the country, Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies set out to achieve the de facto one-party dictatorship by foul means; the systematic undermining of the democratic institutions, Gukurahundi massacre which force PF Zapu to join Zanu PF, etc.

Ruling political elites assume themselves to have an infinite and inexhaustible anointment to rule the country by virtue of (an otherwise heroic national contribution of) being former liberation war fighters.

Zimbabwe can achieve economic prosperity without freedom and naïve and insane. 

Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because for 38 years we have allowed Zanu PF to deny us a meaningful say in the governance of the country in the vain hope the regime will deliver economic prosperity. Of course, it is insane to still hold on to the foolish notion that corrupt, vote rigging and murderous tyrants like Mnangagwa will bring economic prosperity even after 38 years of failing to do so!

As long as the people cannot hold those governing them to democratic account the latter will, more often than not, always act in their selfish interest.

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

Mnangagwa Protecting A Fraudster

The government has blocked all inquiries about the health minister Obadiah Moyo who has for more than a quarter of a century been claiming that he is a medical doctor when he is not.

While a Health Minister does not necessarily have to be a doctor, Obadiah Moyo has for 26 years to date been making false claims that he is a medical doctor and that he has the educational and professional training for it.

A recent investigation has revealed he is not at all a medical doctor contrary to his long-held claims. Obadiah Moyo’s claim to medical fame only goes as far as being the late First Lady Sally Mugabe’s dialysis technician and he presided over her deathbed for the whole duration of her hospitalization, as the US embassy exposed him in 2008.

Furthermore, a peep into the database of medical practitioners reveals Mr. Moyo is not at all registered with them, he has never at any time been registered with them. The pile of fake academic papers is even higher as his medical master's degree is nothing but fake. Further investigations reveal that the man was at one time just a disc jockey, as even the state media reported this week.

Speaking in parliament Wednesday, Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi shot down demands by MDC MPs. Ziyambi said Obadiah Moyo was appointed by Emmerson Mnangagwa and the constitution says the decision for job suitability rests with Mnangagwa not with parliament.

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

Mnangagwa is a Zanu-PF thug

Mnangagwa’s hands are red with the blood of the many innocent Zimbabweans the regime has murdered these last 38 years. After Mugabe himself, Mnangagwa is the next person in line to take the blame for the suffering, deaths and criminal waste of resources in Zimbabwe.

Yes, Mnangagwa took his heavy foot off the wanton violence pedal during the election period but only because the regime had other less violent ways of securing the landslide electoral victory. It was very quick off the mark on the 1^stAugust to snuff out all dissent against the rigged elections when the regime gave out the order of “shoot to kill” the street protestors. He wanted everyone to remember that his regime’s thirst for shedding innocent blood in pursuit of maintaining its iron grip on absolute power was unquenchable.

“My deliberate and conscious decision to open up the democratic space!” No doubt, Mnangagwa expects us all to grovel in the dirt to show our appreciation of his generosity.

The very fact that he deliberately and consciously denied 2 to 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora a vote, deliberately and consciously saw to it that no verified voters’ roll was released thus opening up the door to all manner of vote rigging, etc. is not important to Mnangagwa. No doubt, after taking his foot off the violence; he is entitled to use all other vote-rigging shenanigans there are out there!

President Mnangagwa used his 37 years vote rigging experience to blatantly rig the 30^th July 2018 elections. He and his regime are, per se, illegitimate. The biggest mistake the nation has made repeatedly over the years was to allow Zanu PF to get away with vote rigging. If we allow this Zanu PF junta to remain in power and manage the next elections in 2023 then we can be certain one thing Zanu PF will rig the elections and consider ourselves lucky if the regime keeps its heavy foot off the violence pedal!

By right, President Mnangagwa and many of the Zanu PF dictatorship members should be in jail for all the suffering and deaths they have brought to this nation because of their “deliberate and conscious decision to CLOSE up the democratic space” in Zimbabwe! If there is justice in this world, then these Zanu PF thugs must answer for the over 30 000, included 7 shot dead just last month, innocent Zimbabweans murdered to establish and retain the de facto one-party dictatorship this nation has been under for 38 years and counting.

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

The British thumbs-down Zanu-PF

The British were the one ally Zanu PF has had in its corner worth the salt. The Chinese have the big bucks but they are like the rich uncle who will happily buy you beer instead of school books, as Mugabe has since learned. The Chinese helped Mnangagwa rig the elections and they have since demanded their payback – they back in Chiadzwa picking up the looting from where they left off after Mugabe booted them out two or so years ago.

The British have now confirmed Zanu PF rigged the elections; they have shied away from saying it for nearly two months hoping for a redeeming event, none such event happened. Ambassador Laing had put so much effort in getting everyone to believe the Mnangagwa regime was worth trusting and supporting has now had to eat humble pie and admit she was wrong. The Mnangagwa junta is still a bunch of corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and ruthless thugs.

The blatant vote rigging was bad enough but when the regime issued its shoot to kill order on the 1^st August even the British knew Zanu PF was a party of thugs and nothing had changed.

The British had tried to help Zimbabwe find ways to pay off its debts with the IMF, WB, etc. All these efforts have come to naught now Zimbabwe was viewed, rightly, as a pariah state – it old status under Mugabe.

“This has made the prospects of the multi-billion-dollar financial package needed to stave off economic collapse unlikely, which has, in turn, discouraged private investors,” reported The Guardian.

With the British finally admitting that Zanu PF rig the recent elections, the Americans gave their thumbs down soon after the elections and confirmed the sanction imposed on Zanu PF leaders will remain, there is really no one of note left in Zanu PF’s corner. Zimbabwe’s economic collapse is now a certainty.

With unemployment already at 90% and 75% of the population living on US$1.00 or less a day, it is tempting to think the country has already hit rock bottom it cannot sink any further. The economists may not be able to quantify the economic collapse in US$ terms a health care can in terms of soaring numbers of the severely malnourished or deaths from poverty-related diseases.

Zimbabwe’s economic collapse has unemployment mount Everest high already, at 90% plus; it is now killing off people.

The only way out of this mess is for Zimbabwe to remove this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical regime that has earned the country its pariah status and replace it with a competent and democratically accountable government. President Mnangagwa and his junta must step down or be forced to one way or the other; there is no other way out!

By rigging the recent elections President Mnangagwa confirms that Zanu PF is still a party of thugs. The regime is illegitimate and the only way to correct legitimacy issues is holding fresh free, fair and credible elections. Zanu PF has held Zimbabwe to ransom for the last 38 years, this must now stop! 

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

illegitimate president: ED

Zanu PF has stubbornly undermined the country’s constitution and democratic institutions to blatantly deny the people their freedoms and basic human rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections and even the right to life.

People have demanded free, fair and credible elections but time and time again for the last 38 years Zanu PF has ignored the demands and blatantly rigged the elections. Each time the people have done nothing about this other than wring their fingers like helpless children and Zanu PF thugs, for their part have grown more bold and arrogant.

If the people of Zimbabwe are serious about putting an end to this Zanu PF vote rigging culture, a pre-requisite for meaningful economic recovery, then the people must demand free, fair and credible elections and mean it! What better way of demonstrating that they mean it than refusing to recognise winners of rigged elections!

Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 30 July 2018 and, per se, the regime does not have the people’s mandate to govern, it is illegitimate and must be treated accordingly!

Mnangagwa’s promised to hold a free, fair and credible election soon after last November’s military coup. He stubbornly refused to implement even one democratic reform to make it possible. The regime failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, for Pete’s sake! And the election results with the evidence of multiple voting and other vote-rigging shenanigans showed why the regime did not want the voters’ roll released, it was the smoking gun!

President Mnangagwa, just like Robert Mugabe before him, will promise you anything you ask of him knowing full well he has no intention of honouring that promise. His promise to give the people in the diaspora the vote is as worthless as his promise to hold free, fair and credible elections.

Mnangagwa is a corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thug who is given to staging military coups to get what he wants as the 2008 and last November coups to stop MDC getting into power and to remove Mugabe respectively shown. All those who thought the November coup had changed the man have just had a wake-up call after Zanu PF blatantly rigged these elections.

Mnangagwa and his junta regime rigged the 30^th July 2018 elections making the regime illegitimate. We must now focus on getting the regime to step down and stop wasting time on foolish wishful thinking of allowing the regime to remain in office hoping it will have a Damascene transformative moment!  

Zanu PF is a party of corrupt and ruthless thugs who have already shown that they will stop at nothing including blatant vote-rigging and even murder to establish and retain absolute power. They have enjoyed absolute power and the influence and wealth it brought for decades now, they have dug in and have no intentions of giving it up.

Mnangagwa and the junta have just rigged the recent elections and had seven people shot dead to quill all dissent – proof, to all doubters, that the thugs’ appetite for power and willingness to shed fresh blood to secure it has not diminished. After 38 years of corrupt, vote rigging and tyrannical rule those who expect Zanu PF change, give up the dictatorial powers, give up absolute power and the wealth.

Those with their foot in the real world must know that the only way to stop Zanu PF rigging the next elections in 2023 is by making sure the regime is not let off the illegitimate hook. Zanu PF must be forced to step down and not allowed to organise the 2023 elections; they will rig the elections!

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

US sanctions applauded

“United States ambassador to Zimbabwe Brian Nichols has said that all that is required for the United States to lift sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe is for Zimbabwe to fully implement the 2013 Constitution. Nichols also said that the renewal of sanctions through the amendment of the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (Zidera) just before the July 30 harmonised elections was reflecting the cry for reforms by Zimbabweans,” reported Byo24News.

The Americans could not have made their position any clearer that they did as regards the condition for lifting the sanctions: Zimbabwe was to hold free, fair and credible elections. Just to be absolutely certain Zanu PF knew what the Americans would be looking for they spelled out the condition in the amendment: free public media, Zimbabweans in the diaspora must be allowed to vote, the election process must be transparent, fully implement the constitution, etc. Zanu PF failed to meet any those requirements and went on to blatantly rig the elections.

By blatantly rigging the elections President Mnangagwa and his regime are, per se, illegitimate and the American sanctions and all other international community pressure must be brought upon the regime to step down and allow free, fair and credible elections to be held!

One only hopes that Ambassador Brian Nichols is misrepresented above because the promise to lift the sanction if regime to “fully implementing the 2013 Constitution” suggests that regime will, once again, be forgiven and considered legitimate regardless of it having blatantly rigged the elections. This constitutes a serious climb down on the Americans’ part. Were the Americans’ demands for a free media, vote for the diaspora, etc. all just a blast hot air!

Well, the need to hold free, fair and credible elections is now a matter of life and death to the people of Zimbabwe. The country is right on the edge of the precipice with unemployment a nauseating 90%, all basic services such as the supply of clean water and health care all but collapsed, etc. Zimbabwe is the poorest nation in Africa and 75% of our people live on US$1.00 or less a day.

Yet the country has some of the richest ruling elite in the whole world, they have multi-million dollar business empires, they live in mansions, some even boast of their 45 gold-watches. They are filthy rich! The national wealth and resources which should have been employed for the good of the Commonwealth have all been soaked up to make the few filthy rich at the expense of making the masses filthy poor.

Zimbabwe has been dragged into this hell-on-earth in which millions now live and die in abject poverty and denied of all human dignity and hope because the nation has been stuck for 38 years with a corrupt and tyrannical regime that rigged elections to stay in power. The key out of this hell for Zimbabwe is stopping Zanu PF rigging elections.

Time and time again people have demanded free, fair and credible elections and time and time again Zanu PF has simply ignored the demands and blatantly rigged the elections. The worst that has ever happened to the Zanu PF thugs are the west imposing the targeted sanctions, which have been an inconvenience but otherwise a slap on the wrist! As we can see the vote rigging has continued for 38 years and counting.

If this Zanu PF regime is allowed to get away with blatantly rigging the 30 July 2018 elections then we can be certain of one thing the regime will see this as just another slap on the wrist and it will rig the 2023 elections! Zimbabwe should have never allowed this rigging election culture to take root in the first place much less let it continue for 38 years! We cannot turn back the clock, what we can do right now is make sure the next elections are free, fair and credible and we can only be 100% of that happening if Zanu PF is forced to step down BEFORE the next elections.

Ambassador Nichols, please do not confuse the issue here; this Zanu PF regime rigged the elections and is, per se, illegitimate and therefore the sanctions can only be lifted is the country was to hold fresh free, fair and credible elections. Lifting the sanction because the illegitimate regime has implemented 10% or so of the demands after the elections is just a feeble excuse for letting Zanu PF off the hook!

ED wants to buy legitimacy

President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta rigged the 30 July 2018 elections, that is a fundament truth at issue here. 

If the truth must be told; here, the truth will be told even if it makes some people black as coal or pink with embarrassment; these elections should have never taken place not without first implementing the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. After the blatant cheating and wanton violence in the 2008 elections, no one with even half a brain was left in any doubt that Zanu PF would ever lose any future elections as long as the party continued to enjoy its carte blanche powers to rig the elections. 

The principal purpose of the 2008 to 2013 GNU was to implement the raft of democratic reforms SADC had arm-twisted Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs to agree to. The task of implementing the reforms fell on to the late Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends. Sadly, they failed to get even one reform implemented in five years. Not one!

“MDC leaders were busy enjoying themselves in the GNU, they forgot what they were there for!” remarked one SADC leaders in disgust at the MDC leaders’ GNU betrayal.

Nelson Chamisa and his MDC Alliance friends were warned not to participate in this year’s elections without making sure the reforms are implemented first. But once again they refused to listen. “MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!” insisted Chamisa. The village idiots did not even have the common sense to insist on ZEC releasing a verified voters’ roll, a legal requirement!

Chamisa and his friends agreed to take part in these flawed and illegal elections for the sake of winning the few gravy train seats they knew Zanu PF gave away to entice the opposition to participate. However, Chamisa is naïve and foolish enough to have believed he could win a rigged election! No one in their right mind ever subscribed to his foolish argument that the “elections would be judged free and fair if he wins and rigged if he does not!”

As we now and had said would happen, President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta blatantly rigged the 30^th July 2018 elections, just as they have done in the previous elections. 

A number of the 30 or so individuals/ nations/organizations from democratic nations who were in Zimbabwe to observe the elections have condemned the process as flawed and illegal. Those who rig elections are, per se, illegitimate and cannot expect international community recognition or support. 

Kate Hoey, a British MP who was in Zimbabwe to observe the elections dismissed the process as having been “cleverly rigged”. “We, in the international community cannot accept the result of the election and the UK government must take a lead to ensure that the Zimbabwean government is seen for what it is a mark 2 Mugabe regime and one that deserves no support whatsoever,” she argued.

The Americans, who too observed the elections, have expressed their outrage at the blatant cheating and confirmed the targeted sanction against the Zanu PF leaders will stay. 

Nelson Chamisa, being the opportunistic parasite that he is, is milking the situation for all its worth by refusing to recognise Mnangagwa as the winner of the rigged elections; much to the latter’s added political discomfort, the curse of illegitimacy is not only coming from outsiders but from within Zimbabwe too. 

“Under our Commonwealth parliamentary democracy, the opposition is recognised; we recognise the leader of the opposition in Parliament. This is what we are going to do ourselves,” said President Mnangagwa on Bloomberg TV in the US.

“But under the former administration, there was no formal recognition of the opposition leader but now under my administration, we are embracing the Commonwealth approach to parliamentary democracy where we recognise the leader of the opposition who is given certain conditions and perks in Parliament.”

Of course, this is a bribe pure and simple! 

Whether Chamisa and his MDC Alliance accept the bribe or not is neither here nor there; what matters here is that nothing will change the political reality that Mnangagwa and his junta rigged the 30^th July 2018 elections and so the regime will still remain illegitimate regardless. And, worst of all, if Zanu PF is allowed to remain in office for the next five years, the party will rig the 2023 elections too. 

Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because the nation has been stuck with this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for the last 38 years. As long as nothing is done to implement the reforms Zanu PF will continue to rig elections and stay in power and President Mnangagwa is determined to stay in power till 2023 and bribing Chamisa is a small price to pay to get what he wants!

We, the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe, must be clear what we want – to break this cycle of rigged elections and being stuck with the same corrupt and tyrannical regime. The only sure way to break the cycle is to refuse to recognise and support and party that rigs elections and what better time to do that than right now. 

Zanu PF rigged the 30^th July 2018 election and is, per se, illegitimate and must, per se, be denied all recognition and support regardless of whether the regime picks up a few more parasitic ticks and opportunists, it is still illegitimate! 

A hyena is still a hyena regardless of whether it has ticks or not! This Zanu PF junta is illegitimate regardless of whether it has officially recognised opposition leaders or not!

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

Zanu PF Dictatorship

THE LIFE CYCLE OF THE POLITICAL DICTATORSHIP – BILHARZIA PARASITE

(Zimbabwe was infected by the Zanu PF (schistosomes) in 1980 and after 38 years and counting of corrupt and tyrannical rule the nation is now pissing blood!)


The Zanu PF dictatorship life cycle is as distinct life cycle as distinct as that of a bilharzia or malaria parasites. One sure way to stop the spread of bilharzia is to disrupt one or more of its life cycles; the same is true if we want to end the Zanu PF dictatorship.

Zanu PF blatantly rigged the recent elections. AU and SADC election observer teams gave the elections a qualified “substantial free and fair” as contrast to the 30 or so teams from the democratic nations who condemned the elections or else said nothing! So having rigged the election this Zanu PF regime is, per se, illegitimate and therefore must be denied all the recognition and support.

The greatest mistake people have made the last 38 years was to ignore Zanu PF had just rigged the elections and give it the recognition and support accorded to any other legitimate regime. This has allowed the regime the time, space and resources to complete each stage of it deadly dictatorial cycle confident it will get a slap on the wrist at worst! This must now stop.

The junta must be pressured to step down before it has completed its five years electoral cycle, the sooner the better. We must allow time for the appointment of an interim administration that will be tasked to implement the democratic reforms designed to restore the independence of the corrupted democratic institutions. The nation at large will need time to readjust to the democratic changes after decades of oppressive autocratic rule.

The junta must not be allowed to serve the full five years because it will never implement any meaningful reforms. And to allow the junta to organise the next elections will be sheer folly because it will rig those elections just as readily as it has rigged past elections.

As anyone who has suffered from bilharzia will testify, it is a deadly disease and, if left untreated, is fatal. Zanu PF has already murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans to establish and retain the de facto one-party dictatorship we have lived under these last 38 years. Last month the regime shot dead seven people as a timely reminder of its willingness to shed more blood to secure its iron grip on absolute power.

Nearly four decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have left the national economy in ruins and basic services such as healthcare have all but collapsed. Millions of people are suffering from poverty-related want and diseases and hundreds are dying unnecessarily every month!

The Zanu PF dictatorship is like the bilharzia disease that has infected the nation for 38 years now causing heart-breaking human suffering and deaths. We know the nation can be cured of this disease, we know the cure; it is inhuman not to step up and demand an end to this madness! 

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

No to RIGGED elections, no to Mnangagwa

“Seek ye first the political kingdom and all else shall be added unto you,” said Dr K Nkrumah, the first President of Independent Ghana.

After 38 years of blundering from pillar to post whilst the country sunk deeper and deeper into poverty and hopelessness; Dr Nkrumah’s words make a lot of sense and we in Zimbabwe must sit up and paid heed.

We, the ordinary people, have never secured the political kingdom as surmised by the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country.

During the fight for independence the carrion call amongst the blacks was “One man, one vote!” By the time the nation attained her independence the black nationalist leaders like Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party and the late Joshua Nkomo and his PF Zapu party had moved on.

They wanted absolute power and giving the ordinary person a meaningful vote and endangering their hold on power was simply unthinkable. They wanted a one-party state hence the reason the Chinese and Russian system of government as contrast to western democracy appealed to them.

The two political parties have co-operated, particularly after signed the 1987 Unity Accord, to impose a de facto one party state in Zimbabwe. Whilst the country has kept faith with the requirement to hold regular elections Zanu PF has retained total control of the electoral process to make sure the party always secured a landslide victory regardless of the free democratic wishes of the people.

People have the vote but Zanu PF leaders have the veto! The people were given the paper crown whilst the political leaders retained for themselves the real gold crown.

Zimbabwe has fallen from its perch in 1980 as one of the top five richest nations in Africa with very prospect of becoming the South Korea of Africa to becoming the poorest nation in Africa today with every prospect of sinking even lower. In a reversal of Dr Nkrumah’s maxim, we lost the political kingdom and everything else; economic wealth, our hopes and dreams and even the right to life itself; has been taken away from us.

For the last 20 years the people of Zimbabwe have fought the Zanu PF dictatorship demanding meaningful democratic change designed to restore the individual freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections.  

After last November’s military coup that deposed the long serving dictator Robert Mugabe and the promise by the new Mnangagwa government to hold free, fair and credible elections; most people genuinely believed the country had turned a new page. Sadly President Mnangagwa did not keep his promise as he went on to blatantly rig the elections.

It is tempting to let President Mnangagwa get away with another rigged elections, Zanu PF flexing its veto muscle, but after 38 years the realisation that it is the primary reason the country is in this hell-hole is now the elephant in the room that cannot be ignored. Worse still, we can no longer ignore the reality that until we cure ourselves of the curse of rigged elections this nation will never ever get out of the hell-hole.

Allowing Zanu PF to get away with yet another rigged election is therefore a luxury this nation can ill afford. All pressure must be brought to bear of the regime to give up its carte blanche dictatorial powers to rig elections and restore the people’s freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections.

Zanu PF rigged the elections, the party is illegitimate and it must be pressured to step aside to allow the implementation of the democratic reforms giving back the people their political power. Nothing of any substance can ever be accomplished until this is settled.

It is therefore with anger that the British are determined to work with this Zanu PF regime, ignore that it is illegitimate, and undermining the efforts of everyone else pressuring the regime to change.

“Britain will support Zimbabwe to get on an interim IMF staff programme to help the country quickly clear its foreign arrears, Britain's ambassador in Harare said on Tuesday,” reported Daily News.

“Clearing the $1.8 billion arrears to the World Bank and AfDB is seen as major step for Zimbabwe to start accessing foreign credit, especially for the private sector as well as foreign direct investment.”

The irony is the British will never allow anyone to get away with vote rigging in UK because they know that would undermine the country’s democracy and good governance behind the nation’s political stability and economic posterity. And yet they are the ones fighting tooth and nail to let Mnangagwa and the junta get away with blatantly rigging the recent elections!

Clearly the British, for their own selfish reasons, want Zanu PF to remain in power regardless of consequence of Zimbabwe remaining stuck in this hell-hole. Our task of seeking our political kingdom fighting Zanu PF was always going to be a tough one. Now that we must fight the British too, it is just a little tougher yes but still not impossible!

Besides we have some allies too. The Americans have already said Zanu PF rigged the elections and the targeted sanctions imposed on the party thugs will remain. It is not only the British, the American too, have a say on whether the IMF and WB renew their funding of the Zimbabwe government!

As for investors, few will be fooled by the British’s attempts to portray the Mnangagwa regime as a stable democratic government. Mnangagwa is just “Mugabe mark 2”, as UK MP Kate Hoey rightly pointed following her visit to observe the elections, and Zimbabwe is still a pariah state. Investors do not do business with vote rigging thugs!

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

38 year rule of zanu PF

Zimbabwe is well and truly stuck in an insane situation economic meltdown and tragic human suffering as a result of 38 years and counting of corrupt, tyrannical and murderous Zanu PF dictatorship.

When Zanu PF first got into power in 1980, the party promised “Gutsva ruzhinji!” (Mass prosperity!) By the end of the first decade, the ordinary people were alarmed at the steady economic decline.

The next decade was the two five-year Economic Structural Adjustment Programmes (ESAP) in which the ordinary people were asked “to tighten their belt”, in preparation for economic hardship to come. The people tightened their belts but the promised economic recovery never materialised.

Zimbabwe’s economic situation has got even worse from 2000 to the present. One of the root causes of the economic meltdown was Zanu PF’s violent seizures of the white-owned farms that started in 2000. The farms were given to party loyalists, mainly, who failed to put them to productive use resulting in total collapse of the country’s agricultural sector and with it the economy.

Zimbabwe, which had prided itself in being the breadbasket of the region, soon found itself dependent on imported food aid – the nation was so impoverished it could not pay for the food. So we are starving in a country which is, for all intent and purposes, the Garden of Eden! A damning testimonial to Zanu PF misrule!

On the political front, Zanu PF has over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans to establish and retain the de facto one-party dictatorship the nation has suffered under all these years. Last month the regime shot died seven Zimbabweans; a warning shot across the bow to scar away all those who might have dared to the just ended rigged elections – the latest in a string of rigged elections!

Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because the nation has been well and truly stuck for 38 years and counting with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. The people have long realised Zanu PF was a disaster for the nation but were powerless to remove the party from office.

“Zanu-PF is a political party and a player that is there also to observe those human rights that are enshrined in our laws,” Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi told News Day report.

The minister was boasted about Zanu PF’s commitment to human rights. This, from the party that has just blatantly rigged the elections for the umpteenth time!

“In terms of realigning laws, what we have been doing and will continue to do is allow the Attorney-General's Office to identify all the laws that need to be aligned and we have a dashboard where they need to follow up the laws that need alignment. Basically, what we need to do is look into the outstanding laws that need alignment, such as the Marriages Act, Public Order, and Security Act, Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and Citizenship Act. I think we need to clean them up and make sure that they are aligned to the Constitution, so that is one of the tasks that we should complete within the lifespan of this Parliament.”

Minister, the new constitution was approved in March 2013 and you are still talking of realigning laws! Zanu PF has usurped the people’s power to hold those in power to account and acquired for itself the carte blanche dictatorial powers to deny the people their freedoms and rights including the right to free fair and credible elections.

Zanu PF will never ever implement the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections.

The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic and political mess is 38 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule, it is the metaphorical leaking bucket. The people know the solution to their problem is removing Zanu PF from office by making sure there are free, fair and credible elections. Zanu PF has usurped the people’s power.

If the people of Zimbabwe are insane then it is for failing to realise that allowing Zanu PF to rig elections and getting away with it was in itself an act of futility because this has allowed the regime to drag the nation deeper and deeper into this hell-on-earth the nation now finds itself in!

The longer the people have allowed Zanu PF to rig elections and get away with it the harder it has become to stop the vote rigging. If this Mnangagwa junta is allowed to stay in power for the full five years then we can be 100% certain that the next elections will be rigged. A Zanu PF government will never ever implement any meaningful democratic reforms.

With unemployment now a nauseating 90%, most basic services such as healthcare all but collapse, 75% now living on US$1.00 or less a day, etc. poverty in Zimbabwe has now reached now levels – it is a killer. Hunger, cholera, typhoid and even the easily curable diseases are now killing people!

By allowing Zanu PF thugs deny us our fundamental right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country we have allowed the regime to condemn us to an early grave. We have, by our silence and indifference to our own fate, condemned ourselves to a short and miserable existence. We are nothing but the living dead!

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka  

Zanu PF rigging the election is still a fresh wound

When it comes to elections Zimbabweans have been conditioned, by Zanu PF propaganda, to treat an meaningful post-mortem discussion of the elections as a total waste of time. The party will state its own position; the elections were free, fair and credible and Zanu PF’s landslide victory and assuming of the reins of power is legal and legitimate. Anyone else with anything different to say on the matter is downed out. The nation is forced to accept Zanu PF’s victory enthronement as fait accompli by the swearing in of the president, members of parliaments, new cabinet, etc. The nation is stampeded on!

 

Zanu PF has played a very active role in making sure the people of Zimbabwe have no time to reflect on each rigged election and hence the reason the country has had rigged elections for the last 38 years and counting. The root cause of the country’s economic meltdown and political paralysis was and still is the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. Rigged elections have allowed corrupt, incompetent and even murderous thugs on both sides of the political divide to occupy positions of power and authority.

 

It is as clear as day that Zanu PF rigged the 30 July 2018 elections to claim a landslide victory and the presidency and, as usual, the party has been as keen as mustard to force the nation to accept the regime’s claim to power as legitimate and to move on. And therein lies the rub; the country has been stuck in this hell-on-earth of economic ruins and brutal political oppression for the last 38 years.

 
“You can’t expect us to reform ourselves out of power,” Professor Jonathan Moyo once boasted. That was his happier days when he was one of the Zanu PF ruling elite enjoying absolute power. The November 2017 military coup changed all that, he was one of the G40 leaders who had to run for dear life and has been tweeting from hiding ever since.

 
Still, the point is Zanu PF will never implement any meaningful democratic reforms to allow free, fair and credible elections. Never ever!

 
So the consequence of accepting this vote rigging Zanu PF junta, per se illegitimate, as legitimate is not just another five years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and political bullying and thuggery but, worst of all, the certainty that Zanu PF will rig the 2023 elections.


We are well and truly stuck in a rut but only because we have refused to learn from the past, we have chosen to learn nothing from yesterday’s rigged elections and now we are stuck with the curse of rigged elections and all the misery that comes from having corrupt and illegitimate regime.

 

If we are serious about getting Zimbabwe out of this economic and political hell-hole then we must demand the holding of free, fair and credible elections. We must not just pay lip service to the demands to implementing democrat reforms, pre-requisite for free and fair elections; we demonstrate in any way we can that we will not rest until our demands are met.

 By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka