US praises ED

"This Government has been working towards reform. I have been impressed and I have always said so . . . I know that the Cabinet has approved the principles for the repeal of Posa (Public Order and Security Act) and has been discussing repeal of AIPPA (Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act) and those are all very positive things," said USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Brian Nichols.

There has been no meaningful progress to talk about here. “Working towards reform” is about as vague as one can put it! If Ambassador Nichols is hoping that by praising the regime for doing nothing he will encourage it to do something, he is in for a big disappointment. The regime will no doubt be asking the Americans for sanctions to be lifted and generous lines of credit, its reward for “working towards reforms”!

Zanu PF will drag its feet on implementing the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible election. Its aim is to run down the clock to 2023 elections so the party can rig those elections and extend its stay in power.

The only sure way to get all the democratic reforms implemented to guarantee free, fair and credible elections in 2023 is to force Zanu PF to step down. The party has no democratic mandate to govern because it rigged last July’s elections.

 We are after a solution to end Zimbabwe's nightmare and not a gimmick. Praising Zanu PF  for doing nothing is a gimmick!

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

West demands regime change

"Over the years, the US-backed and Western-sponsored opposition politics in our country has been in many ways a replay of Washington's mindless games that started soon after the declaration of the American Century at the end of the Second World War," wrote Reason Wafawarova, in Bulawayo 24. 

"There is nothing new in the sponsorship of client political parties, and the regime change doctrine was actually overplayed in Latin America during the peak of the Cold War."

Tell me:

1.           Why are you condemning everything the west have done but either praise or say nothing about what the east has done? China, for example, has prop up the Zanu PF dictatorship and has never raised a finger to condemn Zanu PF for rigging elections, beating and murdering people. Have you ever heard China condemn Zanu PF for the 1st August 2018 or January 2019 shoot to kill order not even the Gukurahundi mass massacre! 

2.           Has it ever occurred to you that the ordinary Zimbabweans are the ones behind the fight for free, fair and credible elections? Has it ever occurred to you that Zanu PF is denying the people this fundamental right under the pretext that it is the west and not povo who want this right. 

3.           Do you really believe all Zimbabwe are so stupid and naïve that they failed to see that Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections and if the EU, the Commonwealth and other outsiders had not pointed out the glaring flaws and illegalities in the process not even one Zimbabwean would have noticed. How insulting!

The fight for free, fair and credible elections is the one fight that will be fought until it is won; there is no retreat and no surrender. Regime change is as certain as a ripe mango falling; the only thing to be established now is when and how. 

By rigging the elections Zanu PF has rejected 
peaceful democratic regime change and, necessarily, opting for violent revolutionary change. The country’s worsening economic situation is going to force people to out coming and demand regime change regardless of the certainty the regime will beat, rape and shoot to kill all those who dare voice their dissent. 

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

Xenophobia takes 9 lives

"Everybody just arrives in our townships and rural areas and set up business without licences and permits. We are going to bring this to an end! And those who are operating illegally must now know," warned SA President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Within hours of him saying this there was widespread xenophobia violence on black foreigners in SA. In Cape Town a family of 9 Zimbabweans were burnt alive in one such attack. 7 dead and two children were admitted to hospital with life-threatening burns. 

At the heart of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown and political paralysis is decades of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule. Millions of Zimbabweans are in South Africa as economic or political refugees or both. The solution to Zimbabwe's economic and political mess is for the country to hold free, fair and credible elections. 

President Emmerson Mnangagwa promised to hold free, fair and credible elections in 2018 but failed to keep his promised. Most election observers include the EU, the Commonwealth and many others condemned the elections. 

“The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability. Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards,” said the EU Election Observer Mission final report.

SADC and AU observers confined themselves to praising how "peaceful the elections had been compared to past elections". They did not dare to say anything about anything else. 

Of all the SADC leaders President Ramaphosa is the only one who said the elections were fine! 

Zimbabwe's economic meltdown is worse now than it was before the elections. By rigging the elections Mnangagwa confirmed Zimbabwe was still the same pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. Why President Ramaphosa gave his stamp of approval of Zimbabwe's rigged elections beggars belief. 

By approving Zimbabwe's rigged elections President Ramaphosa has only helped postpone Zimbabwe's economic recovery and thus generate more economic and political refugees, the same refugees he will be pleased to hear are being burnt alive! 

At a time when Zimbabwe desperately needed SADC to help it got out of the hell-on-earth Mugabe and Mnangagwa landed the nation into the last time we wanted is a mediocre leader like Ramaphosa in SA. 

I pity my South African brothers and sisters, Cyril Ramaphosa will not a blessing but a curse to your beautiful nation!

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

UN to the rescue- victims of Ncube's crooked tax

“THE World Food Programme (WFP) says over 1,5 million Zimbabweans in the urban areas will be food insecure this year as the country continues to suffer the effects of the economic downturn and a crippling El Niño-induced drought,” reported Bulawayo 24.

“Worsened by high levels of unemployment that have over the years breached 98%, Zimbabwe's urbanites will require urgent food aid after the end of the traditional lean season, WFP country representative Eddie Rowe said.

"Quite rightly what we are seeing is urban poverty. This is because of high unemployment and lack of social services. All this has a direct impact on the ability of a household to get food," Rowe said in an interview this week.

The UN agency has already piloted a food assistance programme in Epworth, one of the country's poorest high-density settlements, feeding over 20 000 residents.

"While we are moving into assistance, it is part of a comprehensive intervention to address urban poverty. So what we have decided is to do a pilot in Epworth where we are now providing a livelihood accretion of about US$9 per person to almost 20 000 residents," Rowe said.

WFP should know that the 98% unemployed were specifically targeted by Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube with his 2% electronic transaction charge because they were not paying income tax. Most of the unemployed urbanites are vendors living on US$ 30 per month or less and the Minister wanted a cut of their meagre earnings. 

Minister Ncube has, so far at least, not touch the filthy rich ruling elite who are looting the nation blind to build their palatial mansions, to buy their fleet of posh cars and to finance their extravagant lifestyles. The 2% tax has provided the additional income only to pay for hired private jets and more luxuries for the ruling elite. 

If any of the growing army of Zimbabweans living in abject poverty should ever think of going on the street to voice their poverty induced suffering and deaths; Zanu PF will descend on them like a tonne of bricks. The message Zanu PF has send out, with the state security services’ wanton violence including the order of shoot to kill following the 1st August 2018 election protest and the two weeks of fuel increase protest in January 2019, is that the regime will not tolerate dissent. 

Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections and the party is doing as it pleases. 

If the people of Zimbabwe are serious about ending their economic suffering and about living a free, just and prosperous Zimbabwe; they must break the vicious cycle that has alone Zanu PF to rig elections to extend its rule for the last 38 years and counting. Zanu PF rigged last year’s elections, the party has no mandate to govern, and must be forced to step down as the only sure way of finally ending the party’s tyrannical rule. 

Zanu PF must step down to create the political space to allow the appointment of an interim administration tasked to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop the vote rigging.

If Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies are allowed to remain in power till 2023, then the party will rig those elections too and thus extend its rule by yet another five years. That must not be allowed to happen!

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

"ED presidency expires 2020" say the coup plotters

According to Spotlight Zimbabwe, “intelligence information at hand also suggests that the army is reportedly not happy with Mnangagwa's failure to fix the economy and that he has allegedly been signing off the country's mineral resources and land assets for a song without their approval.”

The very fact that these military thugs expected Mnangagwa to revive the Zimbabwe economy after the November 2017 military coup proves just how naive these thugs are! 

The confidence with which Mnangagwa launched his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” mantra soon after the November 2017 coup left no one in any doubt that Mnangagwa and all those around him were 100% cocksure he would revive Zimbabwe’s economy. The team expected a flood of investors to answer his call. 

Investors had shied away from doing business in Zimbabwe for decades because the country had earned a reputation as a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. Therefore to attract investors back into the country it was clearly it was not enough to remove the old dictator Mugabe; Mnangagwa and his supporters were warned of this but would not listen. 

The coup in November 2017 was above all about wrestling power from Mugabe who was threatening to hand it over to his wife and making sure power remained in the hands of the JOC junta. There was no way the JOC was going to risk life and limb in staging the coup and then lose power in free, fair and credible elections 8 months latter. The junta had no intention of holding free, fair and credible elections in 2018. None!

But by blatantly rigging last year’s elections, Mnangagwa et al confirmed that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state and all hope of any meaningful economic recovery evaporated.

Mnangagwa is a ruthless thug and there is absolutely nothing in his whole life to suggest the man had any common sense. The very fact that his November 2017 coup partners are disappointed he has failed to fix the economy only goes to show just how naive they are to have expected him to accomplish such a feat!

So now the same naive army personal are planning to replace Mnangagwa with a retired general in 2020 who will in turn be replaced by civilian in 2023. No doubt these army thugs are confident their political appointees will each make sure Zanu PF’s grip on power will remain unshaken and still deliver the elusive economic revival, Mnangagwa had failed. How naive! 

For the umpteenth time, as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs the country’s economic meltdown will only get worse!

There is growing national and international pressure to force this Mnangagwa Zanu PF regime to step down because everyone knows the party rigged last July’s elections. 

“The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability. Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards,” stated the EU Election Observer Mission final report. 

The country’s worsen economic situation is helping to pile on the pressure for Zanu PF to step down. 

Indeed, those in the army thugs are talking of another coup precisely because they can see that Mnangagwa’s hold on power is slipping the worse economic situation gets. The army thugs are naive to believe their political appointee will do any better nor would he/she have time to prove otherwise. 

Zimbabwe’s military thugs got away with the November 2017 military coup because the world was desperate to see the back of Mugabe; the world will not look so kindly to yet another coup particularly since the last coup failed to end the country’s curse of rigged elections and pariah state. Even leaders like President Cyril Ramaphosa of SA who have been bending over backward to give this Zanu PF regime some modicum of credibility by pretending last elections were free, fair and credible, would find it impossible to keep up the pretence!

The truth is Mnangagwa and his November 2017 putsch have failed to get away with that 
coup because they failed to stop the economic decline. “It is the economy, stupid!” as 
former US President Bill Clinton would say, that floored JOC junta. Staging a second coup would earn the coup plotters a hangman’s rope!

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

38 Years of Bad Governance

ELECTRICITY power generation at Lake Kariba has been cut due to falling water levels in the dam," reported Bulawayo 24. 

"In a statement, the Zambezi River Authority said water allocation for power generation at Kariba North and South would be reduced from the current 1 476mW to 890mW.

"Lake Kariba is currently five metres above the Minimum Operating Level when it should be eight at this time of the year."

It never rains but pours! The country has been hit by the drought, then Cyclone Idai and now reduced power generation because of water shortage. These natural disasters are unpleasant enough no matter who you are but they are felt even more by those with no reserves to fall back on. 

Ever since the seizure of the white owned farms in 2000 Zimbabwe has fallen off its parch as the breadbasket of the region. The country used to produce enough food to feed its own people with plenty left to feed others in the region. The country also earned billions of dollars from selling cash crops like tobacco and cut flowers. The country’s agricultural sector collapsed when Mugabe seized the farms, mostly for himself and his cronies.

Mnangagwa has poured billions of dollars to revive the agricultural sector with his ‘command agriculture’. It has been a failure because of corruption and mismanagement. 

The collapse agricultural sector took down with it the country’s economy leaving the country dependent on important food aid - so impoverish we could not even pay for it. 

We live in the day and age when human ingenuity has turned deserts in crop fields or orchards stretching from horizon to horizon all round. And yet we are starving in a country with idyllic weather and soil for growing crops and farming animals, the Garden of Eden. A damning testimonial to the sheer incompetence of the nation’s post independence leaders! 

Worse still, we, the people of Zimbabwe, have for the last 38 years and counting allowed these Zanu PF thugs to ride roughshod over our basic freedoms and rights and to destroy the nation’s economy. The drought has caught us with empty silos, for decades we have lived from hand to mouths topped up with imported food and aid.

Cyclone Idai has destroyed many schools, hospitals, homes, roads and even killed many people. The damage was much worse that it would have been where it not for the sorry state of our infrastructure. Decades of neglect have left many roads in our cities and towns full of potholes; how much worse the roads in the rural backwaters. 

Hundreds of thousands of people are homeless because their mud-brick homes collapsed. It is now 2 500 since the Romans invented cement and yet millions of our rural people still live in mud hut!

Ian Smith gave Mugabe detailed drawings of the Batoka Gorge Dam, another Kariba Dam, which would have double the hydro power generation capacity and a number of other power projects. 38 years latter, not one of these projects have been carried out. Many companies have closed sending unemployment to nauseating heights of 90%. The prospect of forcing the few companies still operating to shut down because of electrical power cuts due to reduce generation at Kariba Dam is sickening! 

It never rains but pours. For the last 38 years we have done little to end our man-made problems of criminal waste of the nation’s human and material resources through corruption, mismanagement and tyrannical oppression. So when such natural disaster as drought and cyclone Idai occur we are as helpless as a chicken caught in haul storm. 

The next eight months or so are going to be tough, real tough, and no doubt many more lives will be lost. What we must never ever forget is that the suffering and deaths could have been avoided if we had dealt with the country’s root problem of rigged elections and bad governance. 

Zanu PF has managed to stay in power all these last 38 years regardless of the regime’s clear track record of being corrupt and incompetent because the party rigged elections. Mnangagwa rigged last year’s elections just as the party has rigged past elections. 

Zanu PF does not have the mandate to govern and therefore must be pressured to step down. The prospect of another four more years of this corrupt and mediocre Zanu PF government is unthinkable. 

But worst of all; if Zanu PF is allowed to remain in office till the 2023 elections, we can be 100% certain that the party will rig the elections and extend its ruinous and tyrannical reign another five years. We will only have ourselves to blame if that happened!

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

The ZANU government has failed to provide health care.

The trouble with Zanu PF apologists like you Hopewell Chinono is that they are incapable of thinking logically. 

“Ultimately the responsibility for health care in Zimbabwe lies with the State, but until the State has fully grasped that reality, we can do what is within our means because the people who are dying are our kith and kin,” you say.

“It is shameful for the rest of the world to watch our health delivery system become a death trap whilst we claim to be an educated nation. 

“In the event that we don’t get a buy in from government, we can come up with other plans that can help save lives. 

“After talking to doctors working at the four major hospitals, it was clear to me that the doctors do not trust the health authorities either, so the best thing will be to get a logistics company to do this for free.”

1.           Zimbabwe’s health service did not collapse in the last week or month but has been in decline these last 38 years. If it is the state’s responsibility to provide health care, as you readily admit, and the said state has failed to “fully grasp that reality” in the last 38 years; what makes you believe they will ever do so? 

2.           It is the donor community that has carried the burden of Zimbabwe’s health, education, food air and many other areas which would have totally collapse a long time ago. The tragic reality is that the more the outsiders helped the more the Zanu PF government neglected its duty and responsibility. It is a matter of record that the donors sourced and pay for up to 80% of Zimbabwe’s medicine is some areas. Even with the best will in the world there is a limit to what the donors can do especially when the Zimbabwe government authorities are known to seek health care outside the country and waste vast fortunes of luxuries.

3.           The suggestion that individual Zimbabweans can take-up the challenge of sourcing and paying for all the nation medical needs is laughable. With unemployment in the country a nauseating 90%, Zimbabweans in the country are in no position to pay for the medicine. And Zimbabweans is the diaspora are already doing their best to keep the nation ticking and will not be able do much more. But even if the people can be mobilised to make the sacrifice, this can only be a short term solution. We need a cure and not just another painkiller!

4.           Zimbabwe is in a serious mess with 90% out of work, 3/4 of the population living on US$30 or less a month, with health care and other basic services all but collapse, etc. We know the root cause of the country’s economic problems is the 38 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule by Zanu PF. We know Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta rigged last year’s elections to extend their misrule. We can continue to bury our heads in the sand and pretend we do not know about the corrupt and tyrannical misrule but must know it is insane especially when the price for our insanity is now human lives.

The idea that the people of Zimbabwe should find other means to finance public services which should otherwise be provided by government through their tax payments is absurd. So why are we paying the tax for?

We have this Zanu PF government that has failed to provide the basic services such as health care and education because it is corrupt and incompetent. It has remained in power regardless of its pathetic performance record only because the party has rigged elections to stay in power. The solution is not for the people to dig deeper into their pockets to fund basic services; this is not sustainable as we can. The solution is to get a competent government.

Zanu PF blatantly rigged last July’s elections and 
therefore has no mandate to govern. The party must step down to create the political space to allow the implementation of reforms, followed by the holding of free and fair elections. The Zanu PF dictatorship is the elephant in the room, we have pretended not to know it for 38 years, and have paid dearly for our folly. This must now stop. 

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

Doctors give government 2-week ultimatum on medical supplies

“DOCTORS at government hospitals have denied claims by the Health ministry that they had received supplies of medicines, bandages and critical accessories to alleviate their plight, following last week's protests,” reported Newsday.

"The minister (Obadiah Moyo) told us that there were stocks at NatPharm. He told us to send representatives to go and see on our behalf and when they went there, all they found were a few samples," a doctor, who refused to be named, said.

"People were discussing on whether to hold a Press conference or to wait for two weeks and give the government a chance to act. Eventually we agreed to wait and see if concrete action will be taken.” 

The first question one would ask is do these doctors really believe that government will source and deliver to drugs, accessories and repair/ replace all the equipment in two weeks? If government could do that then why it done nothing until now! 

The doctors are giving government two weeks not because they expect government to perform miracles but this is part and parcel of their modus operandi, kicking the can down the road. The situation at the hospitals have reached this sorry state of affairs where a referral hospital like Parirenyatwa has no painkiller, no bandages, etc. The situation is infinitely worse at provincial and district hospitals; they should have just shut their doors years ago. Of course, the doctors have been aware of the rot and decay in the health service but have done nothing about it all these years. Nothing!

The rot and decay is everywhere, in education, NRZ, ZESA, transport, judiciary, everywhere. So it is not just the doctors and nurses who love kicking the can down the road, everyone else does. Doing nothing to stop the rot in the country is a favourite obsession of Zimbabwean right across the board.

The doctors have finally been forced to act and demand that the governments buys the supplies because there was nothing left at the hospitals. The doctors acted because they had kicked the can down the road and had finally ran out of road!

It is a great tragedy that Zimbabweans have allowed Zanu PF to destroy the country’s economy, health and education services, to corrupt the country Police, ZEC and other state institutions, etc. Even now, with the millions of people living in abject poverty and hundreds if not thousands dying every month of hunger and easily preventable diseases there are  Zimbabweans bending over backwards to let Mnangagwa and his junta regime do as they please rather than hold the regime to democratic account. 

Zimbabwe’s health services has all but completely collapsed because of 38 years of bad governance. For 38 years we have pretended not to notice that Zanu PF leaders were incompetent and corrupt and only remained in power because they rigged the elections and brute force to impose themselves on the nation. 

For the last 38 years we have done nothing to stop the vote rigging and thus end Zanu PF’s corrupt and tyrannical rule. For 38 years we have kicked the can down the road and now we are being forced to act because the economic, social and political situation is now so bad it is and unsustainable and unbearable! 

Now that we have worked ourselves into a tight corner, after 38 years of dithering and kicking the can down the road, we must now act, do or die. Here is what doctors, nurses, teachers, engineer, rural peasant, every Zimbabwean out there must do: demand that Mnangagwa and his junta step down.

Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta rigged last year’s elections just as the regime has done in the past. How can the elections be judge free, fair and credible when 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote, there was no verified voters’ roll, vote count from many polling stations were never released, etc. 

Zanu PF has rigged elections in the past and was allowed to stay in power only for the party to rig the next elections. The only sure way to break this vicious cycle is to force Zanu PF to step down. If Zanu PF is still in power in 2023 then we can be 100% certain the party will rig that year’s elections too!

Besides, we need Zanu PF to step down now to allow the appointment of an interim administration that will be tasked to implement the democratic reforms necessary to end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. 

If we are serious about reviving our collapse health and education service, bringing back to life the country’s commerce and industry and productive farms and to restore the individual freedoms and rights of all our people then we must first restore good governance. We must restore the democratic values necessary for free, fair and credible elections. 

For the last 38 years Zimbabweans have buried our heads in the sands and have done 
nothing to end the criminal waste of the nation’s human and material resources by a corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF regime. Now with the country is a serious mess, one only hopes that we have finally learned the lesson that good governance is important and it is our duty as citizens to secure such a government! 

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

Doctors on Hospitals

“Senior doctors at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals yesterday narrated to the minister of Health Obadiah Moyo, of the horrors and deaths occurring everyday at major hospitals because of acute shortages of drugs and hospital consumables,” reported Bulawayo 24.

“The medical practitioners yesterday embarked on a public protest demanding government's speedy intervention citing that the situation has forced them to scale down their services except for dire emergencies only. Moyo met the doctors at Parirenyatwa during their protest.

“Raising concern on behalf of the distraught doctors Azza Mashumba, a paediatrician, wept before Moyo as she narrated how several patients had lost lives due to the lethargy from authorities in dealing with the situation.  "We are coming to certify dead bodies…," she said.

What is sickening about this story is:

1.               that Dr Mashumba has allowed the situation to get this bad that patients and suffering and dying needlessly

2.               that Dr Mashumba should feel so helpless that her only course of action was to cry. 

3.               Zimbabwe’s economic collapse and that of its health services and other basic service did not take place over night as a result of an earthquake or some such catastrophic event; it has happen over the last 38 years. 38 years of corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical rule by this Zanu PF dictatorship has dragged this once upon a time prosperous nation into the gutter.

4.               If Parirenyatwa Hospital, a referral hospital, does not have painkillers and other basic necessities; what worse the provincial hospital and worst of all the district hospitals in the rural backwaters. 

5.               For decades the donors have supplied the bulk of Zimbabwe’s medicine, education, food aid, etc.; they must be sick and tired, especially when they see Zimbabwe ruling elite galavanting in hired luxury jets, living in palatial mansions, etc. 

6.               It is disheartening that Dr Mashumba, just like all the other Zimbabwean professionals, has never lifted a finger in 38 years to stop Zanu PF thugs dragging the nation into the gutter. 

7.               Mnangagwa rigged last year’s elections and not many Zimbabwe professionals said a word in protest, it was all water off a duck’s back. Dr Mashumba you have done nothing to stop thugs imposing their corrupt and tyrannical rule on the nation. You got what you wanted so stop shedding those crocodile tears!

8.               Dr Mashumba you and your fellow professionals can cry Zambezi River flood of tears, that will not change anything. If you are serious about wanting an end to this criminal waste of the nation’s material and human resources then you must demand that Zanu PF steps down so the nation can implement the reforms and finally have its first ever free, fair and credible elections! 

9.               When the country gained her independence in 1980 most Zimbabweans sat back and relaxed expecting a rich harvest of freedom, human rights, justice, peace and economic prosperity. For the last 38 years the nation has harvested brutal oppression, economic hardships and hopelessness and despair. Good governance comes to those willing to roll-up their shirt sleeves and work for it. It is incumbent on all Zimbabweans out there to make sure Zimbabwe has a democratic government accountable to the people. 

10.     The Zanu PF thugs are not going to give up absolute power, especially now the regime is well dug-in and has so much at stake - power, looted wealth and criminal past to hide. Still, these Zanu PF thugs are mere mortals; it is foolish to be grovelling up to them as if they are Gods! Tyrants thrive on making everyone else feel totally powerless and helpless. Dr Mashumba’s tears will not move Mnangagwa to give up absolute power, it will encourage him to be even more arrogant. 

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka