Monday 28 November 2016

By trusting Mugabe to implement reforms the EU is mudding the water! By P Guramatunhu

“Zim re-engagement with EU anchored on respect for democratic values” screamed the headline in The Zimbabwean. The tragedy for Zimbabwe is the EU has not been a true and consist friend for the longsuffering people of Zimbabwe because the EU has revised and even ignored the “democratic values” so often the value and purpose of the anchor has been compromised and lost.

“For this country to reintegrate into the international community fully and create an environment which creates confidence for investors to come back, it is critical that these (2018) elections are peaceful and lead to an acceptable result which means that there should be a minimal level of transparency and fairness in the system. If you don’t have that you create a new cycle of instability which will scare off investors,” Ambassador Philippe Van Damme, the EU Head of Delegation to Zimbabwe told the The Zimbabwean.

“The conclusion of everybody (European investors) is always the same, they are all charmed by this country and impressed by the potential of this country but they all have the same type of concerns. The legal framework remains very uncertain.”

No thinking Zimbabwean would disagree with that. The billion-dollar question is; how do we remove a well-entrenched corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship that has corrupted every State institution and has a well-organized and well-funded vote rigging juggernaut so the country can finally hold it first ever free, fair and credible elections?

After 36 years of independence the country is nowhere near holding its first free and fair elections. Zimbabweans themselves have struggle to define what constitute free, fair and credible elections and thus agree on what democratic reforms the nation needs to implement. The EU’s policy inconsistences have not helped the people of Zimbabwe.  

“What is important is that we continue dialogue with stakeholders to see how we can entrench a democratic culture. Constitutionalism is about aligning the laws to the constitution. It is also about people being aware of the contents of the constitution and what are the fundamental rights and freedoms enshrined in the constitution and knowing what are the consequences of that to their daily lives,” said Van Damme.

This is not helping the people of Zimbabwe for two reasons:

a)     No Zimbabwean worth his/her salt has ever argued that aligning existing law with the new 2013 constitution will deliver the free, fair and credible elections because the latter is a weak and feeble constitution that has given the State president “excessive powers with no democratic checks and balances”, according to Senator David Coltart. Just because some of the country’s feeble minded opposition leaders have been calling for this realignment does not mean it is the right solution. The feeble minds failed to implement the reforms during the GNU and insisted the 2013 elections would be free and fair.

b)    Everyone else has been calling for the formation of a National Transition Authority or some such independent body to implement the democratic reforms necessary to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and the vote rigging machinery to ensure the next elections are free and fair. It is shocking that the EU is trusting the Zanu PF regime to implement the reforms.

It is no secret that the EU lifted its targeted sanctions on all the Zanu PF individuals and institutions, all except President Mugabe and his wife Grace, in 2015 not because the Union was ever under any illusions that the July 2013 elections were free and fair. The whole world saw the blatant vote rigging of bussed hooded voters, the regime stubbornly refusing to release the voters roll, etc. The sanctions were lifted out of economic consideration; Belgium, in particular, was desperate to renew trade in Zimbabwe diamonds; and so democratic values were trumped by economic consideration.

Zimbabwe is in serious economic trouble and another failed election in 2018 could send the nation tumbling over the edge into the abyss. This country cannot take any chances; the solution we want MUST deliver free, fair and credible elections.


Anyone, anyone at all, still arguing that realigning the exist laws to a weak constitution and that we should trust this Zanu PF dictatorship to preside over its own demise regime is not a true friend of the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe and must be ignored! We are looking for a way out of this hell and not for yet another quick-fix solution that will drag us even deeper into this hell!

We have a basketful of corrupt, incompetent and confused Zimbabweans who do not know their left hand from their right and thus landed us in this mess. We have the Chinese and other foreign nationals doing their best to prop up the Mugabe dictatorship. The last thing we want is have EU in the mix, mudding the waters

4 comments:

  1. Dzamara, Zimbabwe's 90% literacy is one of the most abused pieces of data today.

    The country is chaining out tens of thousands of University and College level graduates every year but have ever stopped to access for yourself whether these degrees are even worth the paper they are printed on? Some of these "O" level and even some "A" level students do not know what a verb is. We have PhD graduate who cannot write a one page report without making ten or more grammatic errors not that you can make head or tail of what is being said.

    As you have rightly pointed out above President Mugabe and his thugs have spent the last 36 years "urinating on the heads of Zimbabweans". So much for our 90% literacy rate!

    I agree in Zimbabwe everyone thinks they are an expert and know it all. But like all jack of all trades, they are masters of none. Many people out there have been wittering about democratic change for decades now and yet if you ask them to name even one democratic change it is lights out!

    Zimbabweans know, if they know anything at all because most of the time it is just bluff, things but only at a superficial level. They do not ask or listen to anyone because they think they already know. Tsvangirai was advised by SADC leaders to implement the reforms during the GNU but he ignored them because he thought he knew best. MDC supporters have keep their faith in him regardless of his track record because they too think they know best.

    We have blundered from one disaster into the next because we have failed to pose long enough to learn from the last mistake again because we think we already know what went wrong!

    Zimbabweans are not as smart as we think we are; the day we accept that humbling reality will be the most glorious day is each individual's life because that will mark the day he/she has opened their minds to learning really great and useful stuff! No one with an intellect would allow someone to urinate on them and let them get away with it for a day much less for 36 years!

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  2. Well said brother Musewe! Well said.

    There are many of war veterans who have propped up this Mugabe dictatorship because they believed they will have a share of the political power and economic wealth. And as long as they got the share, they have turned a blind eye to the reality on the ground that the dictatorship had failed to deliver the promise of freedom, liberty, human rights and economic prosperity for all Zimbabweans and not just those who fought in the liberation war and/or are the ruling elite.


    War veterans like Jabulani Sibanda, Chinotimba and many others who have been terrorizing the people, denying them their freedoms and basic human rights to promote the Zanu PF dictatorship for a share of the spoils (many got nothing) should be ashamed of themselves for betraying everything of value the liberation struggle stood for. It is this mercenary spirit that tyrants the world over have exploited to the detriment of the people and the nation.

    The least these rogue war veterans can do now is apologize to the nation for their treasonous betrayal of the liberation struggle, the people and the nation. It is most disheartening that these rogue war veterans are, instead of apologizing, offering their services as seasoned thugs to the highest bidder. President Mugabe has revised his offer to Mahiya and his lot and Mai Mujuru and Nelson Chamisa have yet to declare their bids! What a shame!

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  3. Zimbabwe has started using the new bond notes.

    "No-one trusts this government but we have to wait for a few days to see if public transporters would accept them; we also have to see if the petrol service stations would accept them as legal tender. If they do not accept (them) then their effect would be seen by millions of travelers getting stranded and people not accepting when they make withdrawals from financial institutions," said John Robertson.

    This Zanu PF regime will never again run out of cash to pay civil servants, of that we can be sure. The IMF has been asking the regime to reduce its labour force, the regime has already started to increase the labour force with the Army reportedly taking new recruits. Very soon the regime will be taking of increasing the civil servants' wages. Salaries will certainly go up before the next elections!

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  4. It is impossible to believe that the EU is being honest with us on this matter of free and fair elections.
    “Some of the critical elements in this agreement are that all stakeholders agree that this election must be an inclusive process and that ZEC must have regular dialogue with the political parties and that the key provisions in the constitution including access to voters’ roll are guaranteed. So I think on that basis, we can go ahead but of course the test of the pudding is in the eating. So we have to see over the next months whether this will be implemented,” said Van Damme.

    The Ambassador must have read before the interview soon thereafter that the regime had just called off the ZACC investigation of Professor Jonathan Moyo’s misuse of $400 000 of public funds. The money was used to fund Zanu PF party activities, Minister Chombo was said. So there you are Ambassador Van Damme, you did not have to wait for long to get feedback confirming on what the regime thinks about democratic change. Zanu PF has blurred the distinction between public and party interest; the regime clearly sees nothing wrong with public funds being used to fund party activities.

    In the 2013 elections President Mugabe spent $4 billions looted from national resources at a time when public health and education have all but collapse for lack of funds and other political parties would have considered themselves very rich is they had $400 000 - 0.01% of Zanu PF’s budget. Does the EU think Zanu PF will ever giving up the use of public resources for its own selfish ends just to be in good books with EU? Hell, no!

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