Kirsty Beds corrupt Zanu PF regime

“I am honoured to be appointed by President Mnangagwa as Zimbabwe’s Minister of Youth, Sports, Art and Recreation. I will continue to carry our Flag with pride and dedication of service so we can come together and take Zimbabwe forward.   God bless you and God bless Zimbabwe,” twittered Kirsty Coventry.

 

Of course, you are honoured and we are all pleased for you! But do you really think you will accomplish anything of substance given Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs?

 

President Mnangagwa promised to hold free, fair and credible elections following last November’s military coup. He clearly never meant to keep his promise as the recent rigged elections showed. He made the promise for the sinister and cynical purpose of deceiving the world, and taking the sting of the illegitimacy of the military coup.

 

President Mnangagwa knows that he blatantly rigged the recent elections and, per se, his regime is illegitimate. He has appointed you, Kirsty Coventry and a few other innocent and decent individuals into his cabinet for the same sinister and cynical purpose of deception. You are the human face of the tyrannical regime, the whitewash on the tomb.

 

The illegitimate Zanu PF junta will never accomplish anything of substance, economically or politically, because the regime is rotten. The country will never attract the much need local and foreign investors because they do not do business with corrupt and vote rigging thugs. Investors are a shrewd and savvy lot, they know Zanu PF rigged the elections and they will not be fooled by the whitewash!

 

On the political front, Zanu PF is NOT going to implement even one democratic reforms in the next five years and so we can be 100% certain that Zanu PF will rig 2023 elections just as readily as it rigged 2018 elections! No doubt the regime will look for more innocent but very naïve Zimbabweans to front the regime!

 

Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess because the country is stuck with this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. Each time the regime rigged the elections Zimbabweans have found one excuse after another why they should accept the result and move on, hoping against hope that the nation will stop Zanu PF rigging the next elections.

 

For the last 38 years now, Zimbabwe has been caught up in this insane but deadly cycle of Zanu PF rigging elections to loot resources and to make sure no meaningful democratic reforms are implemented so the party can rig the next elections. The only way to break this vicious cycle is to deny the vote rigging regime legitimacy.

 

Zimbabwe is stuck with a corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship regime and by accepting the appointment you are only helping the illegitimate regime gain some modicum of credibility and thus extend its stay in power for the purpose of looting and rigging the next elections. 38 years of Zanu PF misrule have seen unemployment soar to 90%, basic services such as clean running water and health have all but collapse, etc.; that is where Zanu PF is taking the nation.

 

“I will continue to carry our Flag with pride and dedication of service so we can come together and take Zimbabwe forward.” Not this time my dear.

 

38 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule has dragged this nation into the very depths of economic and political hell; how anyone can be so naïve and downright foolish to call this “forward” beggars belief!  But then Kirsty Coventry is not the first nor will she be the last to be seduced by the trapping of high offices. Viewed through the rose tinted windows of the ministerial limo, the potholes, the illegitimacy and all the bad things disappear; everything is rosy!

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

Thank you Grace Mugabe for exposing Mnangagwa!

Grace Mugabe has certainly matured as a politician. She knows when to strike and how to hit below the belt. Those who mis-red her speech as burying the hatchet with ED must think again. At the funeral of her mother (May her Dear Soul Rest in Eternal Peace) Grace Mugabe threw Emmerson Mnangagwa under the bus in the most dramatic fashion. She unmasked ED as the undertaker of the Zimbabwean economy - a carefree ruler who runs the country impulsively and with no concern for the people he purports to love and serve. 

After failing to destroy Mnangagwa by their open endorsement of Chamisa in the July 30 election, the Mugabes have changed their strategy to fake endorsement of Mnangagwa. They have adopted the Nehoreka strategy of forging a marriage with Makate whilst plotting a devastating comeback. Make no mistake - Mugabe and his wife Grace will NEVER forgive Mnangagwa for humiliating them. Mugabe even intimated he wasn't aware Mnangagwa wanted his job and revealed his preferred successor whilst dismissing the Lacoste PF argument that Operation Restore Legacy was meant to stop Mugabe from handing power to his wife Grace. In Peace Studies we say when a matter is still 'alive'  it comes out effortlessly and frequently. No amount of money can heal their pain. Back to Grace!

During her speech Grace revealed that Mnangagwa chartered her a brand new Gulfstream g650 aircraft sourced from Qatar Airways, adding that government was funding the funeral costs. She joked that if she ever gets lots of money she would love to buy such an aircraft. Grace's remarks were well calculated. And don't think Grace wasn't aware of the backlash ED would get from such reckless and off-budget spending. Its akin to a man standing up in church and confessing to having committed adultery with a married woman in that church, mentioning her by name. He can even shed tears of remorse, but that doesn't stop the congregation from saying WOW! Thats exactly what Grace did. She confessed Emmerson Mnangagwa's sins of commission (abusing public funds) and omission (neglecting the cholera and typhoid pandemic) in public. 

By revealing that ED had charted a brand new and expensive aircraft for her to a nation that is struggling with medieval diseases such as cholera and typhoid - where the poor are ferried to clinics in wheel burrows and donkey/ox drawn carts - Grace said to Zimbabweans 'behold your President!). During her days as First lady, Grace was hated almost by everyone for her penchant for luxury whilst the nation was starving. And she is saying to Zimbabweans nothing has changed! She could have simply thanked Mnangagwa 'for the support' he had given them and end it there but going into detail was something else. 

Everyone knows Emmerson Mnangagwa didn't pay bond notes to Qatar Airways - he paid the scarce US dollars which the ordinary Zimbabwean can't access from the banks.  Meanwhile our senior citizens are sleeping on street pavements after failing to withdraw money from banks whilst ED is playing father Christmas to Grace and her husband Robert. 

It is also a fact that this money was un-budgeted for. Mnangagwa raided RBZ in the same manner his predecessor Mugabe used to do with reckless abandon. Rules were broken, possibly money taken from Paul's account to appease Grace. When Paul goes to the bank he will be told by the bank teller 'we can only give you 50 bollars today or maximum of 300 bollars for the whole week.' Or they are asked to submit an application

 

This answers anyone who is over excited about the New Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube. Without fiscal discipline even if Mnangagwa gets a Finance Minister from the Moon, even if he appoints Barrack Obama as his special advisor, even if Theresa May gives him $10 billion bailout package - the result is the same - its a government for the government and by the government. Chinhu chavo - its got nothing to do with you and me. 

What we learn from Mnangagwa and his predecessor Mugabe is that Zimbabwe's economic woes are deliberate and avoidable. Mnangagwa had no obligation or mandate to spend so lavishly on a funeral of the mother of the former first lady. This was a completely private family business of the Marufus and the Mugabes. It was not by any stretch of imagination a national event that should have cost the tax payer such a fortune.

You can't fix the economy with a corrupt regime

I promise to do my best, I am a hard worker and I want to see Zimbabwe record strong and sustained growth. I also want to see creation of jobs and one of my major priorities would be to attract foreign investors and rebuild confidence. We do not only want to get foreign investment, but, also, domestic investment is extremely important,” said New Finance Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube.

"We will need to look at the several pillars that affect economic development such as government expenditure, attracting foreign direct investment and so on."

No one expected you to say you will fail to create job, wealth and make Zimbabwe proud. The reality on the grounds says you are doomed to fail because you are promising to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear!

 

Mnangagwa, like Mugabe before him, has already shown that he has a head for spending money and worse still on foolish things like charted planes when the nation has no money for the most basic essential such as medicine, fuel and wheat but has no head for creating wealth!

 

Prices of goods have just shot up by as much as 50% and you are planning to cut the wages of the civil servants and soldiers. Good lucky!

 

Your greatest challenge has to be attracting both foreign and local investors; none of them will come. Minister, investors do not do business in pariah states.

 

By blatantly rigging the recent elections, President might as well have put up big billboard reading: ZIMBABWE IS A PARIAH STATE ALL INVESTORS COME HERE AT THEIR OWN PERIL! ZIMBABWE IS NOT OPEN FOR BUSINESS.

 

"I strongly believe in the President's vision of seeing Zimbabwe become a middle-income country,” promised the Minister.

 

Mugabe promised the nation “Gutsva ruzhinji!” (Mass prosperity!) All he has brought is mass poverty! And he started with a very rich inheritance from Ian Smith. If Mugabe inherited the seven fat cow and seven fat ears of corn then Mnangagwa inherited one skin and bone cow.

 

Whilst Zimbabwe’s economic mess can be attributed to 38 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption the real root cause comes from answering the follow up question. Why did the nation fail to do something to stop this madness for all these years?

The nation failed to remove the corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF regime from power all these last 38 years and counting because the party blatantly rigged the elections. It is inconceivable that you, Professor Ncube are not aware the Zanu PF rigged this year’s elections just as it has rigged elections in the past.

 

In other words if Mnangagwa should fail to deliver the economic recovery his regime is promising just as he failed to hold free, fair and credible elections; the nation will not hold the regime to account. He is set to rig the next elections just as readily as he rigged this year’s elections.

 

There is no point in us, the ordinary people wasting time discussing the merits or otherwise of you economic or monetary policies when we cannot hold the regime to democratic account if it fails to deliver the economic recovery. The ultimate measure of democratic accountability is being able to vote the regime out of office which the nation has failed to do for 38 years because Zanu PF rigs the elections. If we do not do something here and now to stop Zanu PF rigging 2023 election it will rig those elections too!

 

Nothing of any value can ever be accomplished until we deal with the curse of rigged elections.

 

Zanu PF rigged this year’s elections, we are still stuck with the corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF dictatorship which we cannot hold to account. We must resolve the political problem of stopping Zanu PF rigging elections only then can we discuss economic, monetary policies and other economic issues.

 

Zanu PF rigged this year’s elections and per se this regime is illegitimate and by extension so are all its ministers! So you see Professor Ncube, must know that you are illegitimate. You joined the illegitimate regime for the honour of being called minister and all the other trappings that go with the post.

 

This Zanu PF regime’s economic and monetary policies are doomed to fail because the regime is seeking to resolve the economic problems before resolving the underlying political problem of vote rigging and political legitimacy.

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

If you say being gay is not African, you don’t know your history

US president, Barack Obama, addressed legal discrimination against LGBT individuals. When he met the Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta, Obama said: “When you start treating people differently not because of any harm they are doing to anybody, but because they are different, that’s the path whereby freedoms begin to erode.”

Unfortunately, the response from Kenyatta was that “there are some things that we must admit we don’t share [with the US]. Our culture, our societies don’t accept.”

As I dug deep, I realised that African culture is no stranger to homosexual behaviours and acts.

This is the same argument that Mnagagwa uses to suppress the human rights of LGBT people in Zimbabwe; that the former president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, used when he signed the most dangerous law against LGBT people in the modern world; and that President Yoweri Museveni used in a ceremonial signing of the anti-gay bill in Uganda. Gambia’s president Yahya Jammeh called for gay people’s throats to be slit.

In digging up facts I found that, while many Africans say that homosexuality is un-African, African culture is no stranger to homosexual behaviours and acts.

For example, in my local language (SHONA), the word for “homosexual” is ngochani, a colloquialism for someone who has anal sex. It might sound insulting and derogatory; however, the point is there is a word for the behaviour. Moreover, this is not a new word; it is as old as the SHONA culture itself.

In the northern part of Nigeria, yan daudu is a Hausa term to described effeminate men who are considered to be wives to men. While the Shona word might be more about behaviour than identity, this Hausa term is more about identity. You have to look and act like a yan daudu to be called one. It is not an identity you can just carry. These words are neutral; they are not infused with hate or disgust.

In the Buganda Kingdom, part of modern-day Uganda, King Mwanga II was openly gay and faced no hate from his subjects until white men brought the Christian church and its condemnation. Though King Mwanga is the most prominent African recorded as being openly gay, he was not alone.

In Boy-Wives and Female Husbands, a book examining homosexuality and feminism in Africa, the researchers found ‘‘explicit” Bushman artwork that depicts men engaging in same-sex sexual activity. There have been other indicators that the transition from boyhood to adulthood within many African ethnic groups involved same-sex sexual activities. So what accounts for the current dismissal of homosexuality on the continent?

One factor is the increased popularity of fundamental Christianity, by way of American televangelists, since the 1980s. While Africans argued that homosexuality was a western import, they in turn used a western religion as the basis for their argument.

Reinforcing this is the fact that populist homophobia has kept many politicians in power. Across Africa, if you hate gay people, you get votes.

It is used to pass laws and to jail, threaten or kill gay rights activists. It is used to dehumanise LGBT people across Africa and legitimise the hate that we face. It is the reason I receive death threats, which ultimately drove me into exile from my home in Nigeria.

As long as the notion that homosexuality is un-African persists, Kenyatta will receive applause, the Zanu PF regime will win elections, and parliaments across the continent will reintroduce harmful laws.

To stop all this, we need to start by re-telling our history and remembering our true African culture, one that celebrates diversity, promotes equality and acceptance, and recognises the contribution of everyone, whatever their sexuality.

Greedy Mnangagwa could have helped thousands

Grace said Mnangagwa had told them to "keep their little money" after they tried to bankroll her mother's funeral.

"We tried to chip in with our money, we were told by Mnangagwa that ‘keep your little money, we shall help you,' " she said.

 

"I can tell you here that every week Cde Mnangagwa sends people to our home to ask us what we want and how we are. He does so out of love, be assured we are taken care of."

This comes hot on the wake of the news that Mnangagwa had just spend $1.4 million on a chartered plane to fly Grace back from Singapore for the funeral.

 

In a country where ¾ of the population are now living in abject poverty on as little as US$1.00 or less a day and basic services such as health have all but collapsed. Hospitals up and down the country have no money to buy even essential live saving drugs for babies. And yet our government continues to spend money as if there is no tomorrow pampering the filthy rich ruling elite and their families.

 

This no-expense spare for the rich carry-on underlines two important points:

 

     1. President Mnangagwa, and Mugabe before him, have continued to look after the selfish interest of the rich and powerful at the expense of the voiceless and impoverished majority. The poor will suffer and die unnecessarily as long as they continue to have a meaningless vote, a token but valueless vote which counts for nothing in the face of the rich and powerful’s veto.

 

2. After decades of enjoying absolute power complete with the influence and wealth that it brought there is no doubt the ruling elite have become addicted to absolute power and hence the reason they have committed all manner of crimes including cheating and wanton violence to retain political power at any and all cost. Politics have become such a lucrative career attracting some of the most ruthless cutthroats most honest men and women have shied away leaving the field open to the thugs who are fighting amongst themselves like wild cats for the spoils of power but will fight just as fiercely to retain the rotten political system.

 

Whilst the greatest fight of this generation ever since the country attained her independence in 1980 has been to secure the freedoms and rights of all Zimbabweans including the right to a meaningful vote and the right to life itself. People like Grace Mugabe see nothing wrong with rigged elections as long as their selfish interests, their insatiable greed for power, influence and wealth are secured and guaranteed.

 

President Mnangagwa rigged the recent elections just as he had help Mugabe rig elections in the past. He can afford to ignore the long suffering povo who are now dying unnecessarily whilst he attends to the insatiable greed of the country’s filthy rich ruling elite. Povo have the token but valueless vote which the Chiwengas, Mugabes, Justice Chigumba and her fellow ZEC officials, Chiefs, rogue war veterans etc. have the veto that has helped to rig elections and stay in power.

 

The $1.4 million wasted on chartering the plane for Grace would have bought the life-saving drugs of 100 000 babies now condemned to an early grave. Her needs to travel in total luxury, luxury a first class commercial flight would not provide, was far more important than the babies’ lives! “Be assured we are taken care of!” Of course, you are!

 By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

Investors don't do business with Zanu PF Thugs

The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and political paralysis is the failure to remove Zanu PF from office even when it was clear the party was incompetent and corrupt. Zanu PF rigged the elections to stay in power regardless what the people wanted. The issue of whether these recent elections were free, fair and credible is therefore important.





If the elections were free, fair and credible then we have cracked it, we are no longer stuck with the Zanu PF regime. On the other hand if the elections were rigged then we are still stuck with Zanu PF and those we think we should just accept the outcome and move on are failing grasp the very essence of our problem – we stuck with Zanu PF and we will never “move on” until we stop the vote rigging!





The new president (Mnangagwa) is asking the whole country for help to secure the future and he has extended the hand of reconciliation to the opposition.





MDC Alliance seems to have turned its back on these initiatives and instead have continued to make the assertion that this was a ‘stolen' election and that Chamisa is the legitimate president.





It is not the MDC Alliance’s reaction that will decide the economic prosperity and political stability of Zimbabwe but the investors and lenders. Investors do not do business with vote rigging thugs.  By rigging the elections, President Mnangagwa has just confirmed that Zimbabwe is a pariah state whose next regime change is another military coup or widespread political violence, citizen demanding an end to the mountain of economic hardships they are facing.

 

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

 

Mnangagwa's Lies cannot go unchallenged

President Mnangagwa’s falsehoods and damned lies in the Guardian (UK) newspaper cannot go unchallenged.




The jacaranda trees have bloomed without failure throughout the years of white colonial oppression just as they have bloomed throughout the years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF oppression that followed. Yes the people of Zimbabwe were very pleased to see Robert Mugabe finally forced out of office; they had to be eternally grateful for even this little mercy.

 

Of course, it was a little mercy because no one, other than the very naïve and gullible, were under any illusion the November coup was about removing the top dog in the Zanu PF dictators and a handful of others around him but only to replace Mugabe with another dictator, Emmerson Mnangagwa, “mark 2 Mugabe”, as UK MP Kate Hoey called him.

The real acid test of whether the November coup had ushered in real democratic change in Zimbabwe was the elections. Mark 2 Mugabe promised to hold free, fair and credible elections but no serious political analyst believed him and events have since confirmed they were right.

This year the junta instructed its operatives to take their foot off the violence pedal and concentrated on reminding the voters that the violence of 2008 and 2013 will return if Zanu PF should lose these elections, “operation harvest fear” as some people have called it.





Just two months before this year’s July elections, President Mnangagwa gave an interview with UK based Economist Magazine in which he flatly denied that Zanu PF rigged the 2008 elections. “Where is the evidence of vote rigging!” he maintained. He is still in denial that Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by vote rigging thugs.



The investors and lenders whose help Zimbabwe needs to kick start its comatose economy are a shrewd and savvy lot, they are smart enough to see that these elections were rigged. They will continue to shy away from investing in Zimbabwe.



Jacaranda trees do not care whether it is Mugabe or Mugabe mark 2 ruling the country; investors and lenders care a great deal hence the reason the economy is in a mess and is not going to recover.

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

Mugabe Endorses Rigged Election

All these years’ people thought the two were addicted to absolute power, a very powerful and highly addictive drug in its own right. The two had tasted absolute power and their hooked for life, the more power they had the more they wanted. Even when it became increasingly obvious that power was slipping out of Mugabe’s hands he tried desperately to hang on.

Lo behold, their worst nightmare did come true on the earlier hours of the morning of 15 November 2017; the couple were rudely awakened looking up the business end of an AK 47 rifle.

After nine months cooling off period, one had hope that Mugabe and his wife had used the time to reflect on chaos, suffering and deaths their reign of terror fuelled by their insatiable greed for absolute power and all the influence and wealth it brought, had visited on the nation. It is very disappointing therefore to discover they are back wittering the same nonsense, proof they are high on some hallucinogenic drug.

Former President Robert Mugabe yesterday implored the nation to rally behind President Mnangagwa, saying his election victory in the July 30 harmonised elections legitimised his leadership. The remarks by the ex-president were buttressed by his wife, Grace, who said they would pray for President Mnangagwa as his leadership was God-given.

Zimbabwe is in this serious economic mess with unemployment a dizzying 90% and ¾ of our people now living on US$1.00 or less a day because the nation has been stuck with a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for 38 years and counting. As long as nothing is done to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections it is clear the thugs will be ruling this nation for many, many more decades yet! There will be no meaningful economic recovery because investors and lenders will stay away; they do not do business with thugs.

Still Mugabe and Grace have since recovered to not only accept Mnangagwa as president but to even publicly defend the vote rigging and de facto one party dictatorship. The secret to this change of heart: they have now received concrete guarantees from President Mnangagwa that their fabulous wealth and luxurious lifestyle is secure.

The moral of this story is; our ruling elite are not just addicted to absolute power they are equally drunk and addicted to the fabulous wealth and the life of leisure and luxury. If we are serious about ending the scourge of vote rigging then we must also dispossess the filthy rich of their ill got wealth and give it back to its rightful owners – the impoverish masses. As long as we allow the rich to keep their wealth they are certain to use it to fight against all efforts to bring about any meaningful democratic change.

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

It Backfires on Mnangagwa's Rigged Election

When Mnangagwa returned from his China trip, the country was in turmoil. The economic situation in Zimbabwe has plunged to its worst. Fuel shortages have hit the country, basic food/goods shortages in the shops, drug shortages in hospitals and clinics, cholera outbreak in the high density areas, price hikes and as if its not enough, the banks notified customers that certain online payments are no longer accepted. The uncertainty in Zimbabwe is increasing and this repels potential investors and business. As the opposition leader Nelson Chamisa said, you can rig the election but you can't rig the economy. The Zanu PF regime will rip what they sow.

 

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

The Aftermath of ED rigged elections

Zimbabwe has just had its harmonised elections which Zanu PF blatantly rigged, again, to claim a landslide victory. The results triggered street protests which the regime ruthlessly crash with soldiers ordered to shoot to kill. Seven civilians were short dead and hundreds were injured.

In the past Zanu PF rigged elections have resulted in Zimbabweans leaving the country in droves, this set to happen as more and more people wake up to the reality that the much hoped economic recovery will never happen. By rigging the elections, President Mnangagwa and his junta have just confirmed that Zimbabwe is still a pariah state ruled by vote rigging thugs. Investors and lenders, the country has been banking on to help kick start the comatose economy, are not coming. They do not do business with thugs.

The most notable thing to happen since the 30 July 2018 voting is the shortage of cash, it bad before but has got significantly worse since, especially the US dollar. The second thing is the shortage of basic goods and/or prices going up.

President Mnangagwa is just another corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging dictator, Robert Mugabe in all but name; he confirmed this by rigging the elections. As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by thugs, the country will never know economic prosperity and political stability. Many more people will leave Zimbabwe in the coming months and years; if it was practical for everyone to leave, they would. The last man to leave Zimbabwe would not have to bother switching off the lights, ZESA power cuts took care of that years ago.

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

Zimbabwe's Political and Economic Meltdown

Zimbabwe is in serious trouble already with unemployment at the dizzying heights of 90%, basic services such as clean running water and health all but collapsed and 75% of our people living on US$1.00 or less a day. The whole nation was hoping that the recent elections will mark a point of departure from the chaos of the past, it has instead confirmed that the Zanu PF lunatics are still in charge. As usual, they have no clue what they are doing but you would not know from all the silver-back gorilla posturing and chest-drumming.



As expected, Zanu PF has gone on to blatantly rig these elections. Zanu PF denied 2 to 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote for no better reason than that most of them support the opposition. The party used hand-outs and threats of beatings or worse from its proxies, Chiefs, rogue war veterans and the deployed 5 000 soldiers, to reduce rural voters to nothing more than serfs beholden to Zanu PF.



Materially, the people of Zimbabwe are poor, the poorest in Africa, but they are not poor mentally, at least not that stupid not to know that these Zanu PF thugs are corrupt and incompetent and that it is them who have destroyed the nation’s once promising economy. The only reason why Zanu PF has remained in power all these last 38 years is because the thugs cheat and even use wanton violence to make sure they win elections.



When President Mnangagwa promised to hold free, fair and credible elections, the whole nation held its breath and crossed its fingers in high hope. These would be the nation’s first such elections and thus marking a break from the nightmare of rigged elections and corrupt and tyrannical rule. President Mnangagwa did not keep his promise as he instituted the same vote rigging system that he, as Mugabe’s Chief Enforcer, had used all these years.



The people of Zimbabwe are devastated that Zanu PF blatantly rigged these elections, they know there will be no meaningful economic recovery because the same corrupt and incompetent thugs who landed the nation in this mess are back in charge.

After 38 years of rigged elections and the country sinking deeper and deeper into economic ruin the solution is as clear as daylight; to get out of this mess we must end this scourge of rigged elections. Tendai Biti is right to say this Zanu PF regime is illegitimate because it rigged the elections.



Zanu PF thugs must be told in no uncertain terms that they rigged the elections and therefore they are illegitimate and, per se, they must step aside to allow the country to deal with this scourge of vote rigging. All those giving President Mnangagwa and his junta an hope that they can somehow get way with yet another rigged elections are not being helpful, to say the least!

Zimbabwe is in serious economic and political trouble and it needs serious solutions and not the same failed platitudes that landed us in this mess in the first place.

 

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

Mnangagwa could have saved thousands of lives than book a charter plane for Grace Mugabe

According to New Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa was “moved” to facilitated the return home from Singapore of former first lady Grace Mugabe whose mother died last week.

"The president decided to spare the former first lady the inconvenience of scheduled flights at this difficult moment so a chartered plane was arranged for so she could return home as quickly as possible," said a senior Zanu-PF official.

But was a chartered plane really necessary? Zimbabwe is the poorest nation in Africa and yet the country’s ruling elite have continued to enjoy lifestyles of unparalleled leisure and luxury. 

President Mnangagwa has bought new cars for the Chiefs, all Zanu PF parliamentary and senate candidates in the elections, party leaders, rogue war veterans. The election has costed $900 million by some people’s reckoning but some believe $4 billion will be closer to the mark. 

Mnangagwa gave the late MDC leader the $4 million Highlands mansion and paid his R2 million hospital bill.

To Mugabe and his family Mnangagwa has gave the tyrant a generous golden hand shake and allowed him to keep all the millions of dollars of looted wealth. Now this, a chartered plane from Singapore!

This is all happened at a time the country is running out of medicine and cash and most commodity prices are soaring because of shortages. 

British MP, Kate Hoey, has called Mnangagwa “mark 2 Mugabe” when the two are big spenders for one thing. Whilst Mugabe had the advantage of inheriting seven fat cows from Ian Smith Mnangagwa has inherited one miserably thin cow from Mugabe.

It took Mugabe 30 years to take down the Zimbabwe economy from one of the top five richest in Africa to the poorest in Africa. By the time the tyrant was forced to retire in last November’s military coup unemployment was a nauseating 90%; the country’s health services had all but collapsed hence the need for the dictator and his family’s need to fly to Singapore for all their health needs;  ¾ of our people lived on US$1.00 or less a day; etc.

How much worse off can someone already living on US$1.00 or less a day be? How long is a piece of string? Give Mnangagwa 30 months, not years months, and many will know how much more miserable life is living on US$1.00 or less a week, having no medicine, etc. Hell is a bottomless pit and it seems Zimbabweans, by keeping Zanu PF thugs in power, are determined to explore its deepest and darkest recesses!

“The Province’s leading referral centre, Masvingo Provincial Hospital is facing a severe shortage of essential drugs, triggering a high mortality rate at the government run health centre,” reported Zimeye on the critical shortage of drugs in Zimbabwe. 

“The worst affected departments include casualty, chronic illness and children’s wards respectively. Asthmatic patients have not been receiving treatment for the past few months because the nebuliser machine developed a fault and had since not been maintained . Sources at the hospital told ZimEye.com yesterday there was a sharp increase in the mortality rate among infants and patients referred to the casualty section due to the critical shortage of essential medicine.”

So President Mnangagwa was “moved” to charter plane for Grace Mugabe just to save her “the inconvenience of scheduled flights”. At a cost of $1 million or so; money that would have bought enough life-saving medicine for 10 000 plus who now dying unnecessarily. It is sickening!

Zimbabwe's Uneven Democratic space

The clampdown of the democratic space by the government and its proxies is increasing. The proxies blocked a peaceful “Thank You Rally” by opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa, arrested 78 female protesters in Victoria Falls, Obert Mpofu threatening a crackdown on any street protest in the capital, Central Intelligence Organisation and Military Intelligence circulating a false letter of Douglas Mwonzora's (MDC Alliance Secretary-General) resignation and the list is endless. Mnangagwa has failed to improve the political environment and flatten the uneven democratic space. The international community should condemn Zimbabwe for human rights abuses.

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka

The Cover Up Inquiry

The true colours and character of the inaugurated President Mnangagwa are coming to light. The unconstitutional act he did coming up with the 7 member shooting inquiry "which includes his sister" (Vimbai Nyemba) without consulting the cabinet and also not appointing the relevant ministry to foresee the inquiry was unlawful.  In my own opinion, Mnangagwa is hoodwinking the international community to lure investors and funds. It is clear and evident that only when ordered by a general to open fire, the soldier will obey orders and in this case, 7 civilians including opposition members lost their lives. This inquiry is their to cover up the government and its proxies of their wrong doings. In a nutshell, the EU should follow the footsteps of the US to sanction top ZANU-PF members. 

By Jeff Kurai Chakanyuka