By Wilbert Mukori- “There are no imaginative skills on how to move the country forward internally and externally, be it economic and political in both the ruling party and the opposition of Nelson Chamisa,” wrote Nomazulu Thata, commenting on Professor Stephen Chan’s recent video interview.
Professor Stephen Chan is a blundering idiot masquerading as an intellectual. He has made many very serious blunders on Zimbabwe politics in the past and talked about one such blunder in his interview. He admitted to advising the British Secretary of State for Africa to attend Mnangagwa’s inauguration following the rigged July 2018 elections. He argued the British to give Mnangagwa a chance.
Other luminary personalities who had observed Zimbabwe’s July 2018 elections, notably Labour MP Kate Hoey, dismissed the elections as a farce and argued the international community not to give the illegitimate Zanu PF regime any support.
It was a great pity that the British government accepted Professor Chan’s advice and not that of MP Hoey. We, in Zimbabwe, have paid dearly for that blunder to this day!
I do agree with Professor Chan’s gloomy assessment of the sorry state Zimbabwe is in. He is right to say there is a lack of imagination, internally and externally, as what to do to get the country out of the mess. The irony is the solution has been hiding in plain sight all along; if only we would open our eyes and minds to see it.
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. 40 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have left the country’s economy in ruins. 40 years of stifled debate and democratic competition has forced quality out of public life leaving the field open to corrupt and incompetent individuals on both sides of the political divide.
We need to implement the democratic reforms to promote free debate and competition and to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections.
Since Zanu PF government will never implement the reforms, the party will never reform itself out of office, we must appoint an independent body that will implement the reforms.
Zanu PF must step down to allow the political space for the independent body that will implement the reforms.
“Zanu PF will never step down!” many have argued. Of course, they will step down; they have done is before already!
Zanu PF was forced to step down following the blatant cheating and wanton violence of the 2008 elections. The international community, included the usually reticent see nothing SADC and AU, refused to endorse Zanu PF’s claim of electoral victory and legitimacy.
By participating in the July 2018 elections Zimbabwe’s corrupt and incompetent opposition parties gave the flawed and illegal process credibility and, by extension, the vote rigging Zanu PF regime some modicum of legitimacy. Just one of the many decisions proving the compete lack of quality and imagination on the part of Nelson Chamisa et al!
The EU, the Americans, the Commonwealth and all the other nations and organisations with any democratic credentials worth a spit condemned the July 2018 elections as a farce.
“The electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability,” stated the EU Mission final report.
“As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”
Given such a damning report, the decision by Professor Chan and the British to let Mnangagwa off the legitimacy hook beggared belief and showed a complete lack of imagination.
The pressure on Zanu PF to stop down should have been brought to bear immediately following the rigged 31 July 2018. The pressure can still be brought to bear even now, the failure to revive the economy is putting Mnangagwa under renewed pressure.
Mnangagwa rigged the July 2018 elections confident he would go on to “rig” economic recovery. His “Zimbabwe is open for business!” clarion call has failed to attract the flood of investors. The corona virus pandemic has made a bad situation even worse, the crisis has now turned into a real tragedy.
Before the corona virus outbreak, 34% of the Zimbabweans were already living in extreme poverty; the number has surged upward.
Basic services such as health care and education have all but collapse because of decades of poor funding. Teachers and health care personal have been on strike for months on end demanding a living wage and safe working conditions. All civil servants have just been awarded up 500% wage increase taking the pittance wage of the lowest paid teachers from US$30 to 157 pm. The PDL in Zimbabwe is US$650 pm.
With inflation already at 838% year on year, the wage hike will be eroded away within a few months and everyone will be out of strike again.
With more than a third of the population living in extreme poverty, no health care service, no education for the children, etc. Zimbabwe’s future is bleak. And as long as the country remains a Banana Republic, a pariah state, ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs; the situation will only get worse.
Zimbabwe could have been saved from this tragic end if only Zanu PF had been stopped from turning the country into a pariah state. The country can still be save from sinking even deeper into this man-made hell-on-earth by implementing the democratic reforms designed to end the curse of rigged elections.
Only that is needed is the courage and resolve to demand that the illegitimate Zanu PF regime steps down and stop holding the nation to ransom.
Yes, Professor Chan is right, there really is shocking lack of imagination here. When a corrupt, incompetent and, for all intend and practical purposes, braindead thug like Emmerson Mnangagwa is viewed for 40 years and counting as an all powerful demigod; there is a daft lack of imagination all round.