Opinion / Columnist
'Zanu PF will rule!' says illegitimate ED - UDI echo, stakes are much higher
13 Dec 2018 at 09:41hrs | Views
"I don't believe in black majority rule ever in Rhodesia - not in a thousand years!" This is the now infamous quote of the rebel Ian Douglas Smith after declaring the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) in 1965. Smith's white supremacist regime only lasted 15 years!
The tragedy for Zimbabwe is the black Zanu PF government that emerged from the war of independence has turned out to be corrupt, incompetent and ruthlessly oppressive. The party led by Robert Mugabe for 37 years and now by Emmerson Mnangagwa for the last year, has ridden roughshod over the ordinary Zimbabweans; denying them their freedoms and basic human rights including the right to free and fair elections and even the right to life.
Ever since coming into office in 1980, Zanu PF has undermined the country's democratic institutions and the 1979 Lancaster House multi-party constitution to establish and retain a de facto one-party state. All Zanu PF leaders have ever cared about is absolute power and the political influence and wealth it brought. They have cheated and rigged elections to make sure Zanu PF retains its iron grip on power at all cost.
The 38 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and lawlessness as exemplified by Zanu PF's blatant disregard for property rights have completely destroyed the Zimbabwe economy. Under white colonial rule Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia, was the breadbasket of the whole Southern African region; the country produced enough maize, wheat, meat, etc. to feed its own people with surplus for export. The country also earned billions of dollars from the export of top quality tobacco, cut flowers and other cash crops. Zanu PF has since completely destroyed the country's agricultural sector together with the rest of the once booming economy.
Today Zimbabwe is rely on imported food aid - the country is so impoverish it cannot even pay for the imported food!
We live in the day and age when mankind has used his ingenuity to turn deserts into green orchards. And yet Zimbabweans are starving in a country that is, for all intent and practical purposes, the Garden of Eden. This is a damning indictment on Zanu PF's failed leadership!
The Zanu PF dictatorship must go because it is an affront to the nation and people of Zimbabwe and a serious threat political stability and peace in the country and the region.
"We had our peaceful and non-violent elections and we won more than two thirds majority in parliament," President Mnangagwa told his party supporters at the on-going Zanu PF conference.
Mnangagwa is only putting a brave face just as Ian Smith did in 1965. This Zanu PF dictatorship is just as illegitimate as Smith's regime.
Mnangagwa knows that the people's mandate to govern comes from winning the majority votes in a free, fair and credible elections. Zimbabwe's recent elections were not free, fair and credible.
It is worth noting that Mnangagwa confined himself to talking of the recent elections as "peaceful and non-violent". He did not dare to claim the elections were free, fair and credible because he knows that they were not and has been told so repeatedly.
All the international election observer teams have either confined their comments on the peaceful process or have condemned the process as "biased, unfair and not to acceptable international standards". This is just diplomatic language for the elections were rigged and therefore President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta are illegitimate.
In a healthy and functioning democracy those who rig elections are punished and not rewarded with high office. As stated above, post-independent Zimbabwe is a de facto one-party dictatorship; the Zanu PF thugs control of all the state institutions and have their heavy boot on the nation's throat and so they rig elections and reward themselves with absolute power!
"Musabatikane nemhere mhere irikubva kumaloser, tichatonga five years sezvinotaurwa neConstitution and tavakuisa kumberi kuvaka nekugadzira upfumi hwenyika. (Ignore the noise from the losers, we are going to govern for the next five years as stipulated by the constitution. We are pushing ahead with our policies and programmes designed revive the country's economy.)"
It was the pincer action of the intensifying civil war at home and the increasing international isolation (after the Americans pressured white-ruled SA to end its support of Rhodesia) that forced Smith to accept black rule.
The sledge hammer blows on Mnangagwa to step down are coming from the country's worsening economic meltdown. Decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and lawlessness have left the country's economy in ruins with no hope of any meaning economic recovery have taken a heavy toll on the nation. Unemployment has soared to dizzying heights of 90%, Zimbabweans are now the poorest nation in Africa with 75% of them now living on US$1.00 or less a day. Zimbabwe's economic situation is socially, morally and politically unsustainable.
Even if Mnangagwa and his junta were to use brute force to stop all dissent, which the regime has already send a clear signal it will do with the "shoot to kill" command against protesting the rigged elections on 1 st August. Zanu PF remaining in office until 2023 will only mean one thing - the party will rig the 2023 elections and extend its rule another five years. Another five more years of the 90% unemployment rate and life threatening grinding poverty!
When the chips were down, Ian Smith had the common sense to accept that his white supremacists regime was doomed. Sadly the same cannot be said of tyrants like Mugabe and Mnangagwa, short of putting a gun to his head, they would rather drag the whole nation into the abyss than give up power. Mugabe was lucky that the one pointing the gun at his head a year ago did not have a titchy finger; Mnangagwa may not be so lucky!
"Zanu PF ichatonga! Igotonga! Imi muchongohukura! Nokuhukura! (Zanu PF will rule! And rule! Whilst you (calling for legitimacy) bark! And bark!)" is Mnangagwa's clarion call to his Zanu PF supporters! He made the call during Mugabe's days and has repeated it since taking over with renewed vigour and urgency.
Allowing Zanu PF to rig the elections and stay in power is the most foolish thing the people Zimbabwe has ever done since independence and the nation has paid dearly for it. Today, with the nation standing on the edge of the precipice, the pressure on the nation to atone for its folly could not be greater and more urgent!
Zanu PF rigged the 30 July 2018 elections, the party has no legal mandate to govern and it must step down now - that is not negotiable! After 38 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule it is insane to let this charade continue another day!
If this Zanu PF is still in office in 2023, then we, the people of Zimbabwe, would have failed ourselves.
The tragedy for Zimbabwe is the black Zanu PF government that emerged from the war of independence has turned out to be corrupt, incompetent and ruthlessly oppressive. The party led by Robert Mugabe for 37 years and now by Emmerson Mnangagwa for the last year, has ridden roughshod over the ordinary Zimbabweans; denying them their freedoms and basic human rights including the right to free and fair elections and even the right to life.
Ever since coming into office in 1980, Zanu PF has undermined the country's democratic institutions and the 1979 Lancaster House multi-party constitution to establish and retain a de facto one-party state. All Zanu PF leaders have ever cared about is absolute power and the political influence and wealth it brought. They have cheated and rigged elections to make sure Zanu PF retains its iron grip on power at all cost.
The 38 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and lawlessness as exemplified by Zanu PF's blatant disregard for property rights have completely destroyed the Zimbabwe economy. Under white colonial rule Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia, was the breadbasket of the whole Southern African region; the country produced enough maize, wheat, meat, etc. to feed its own people with surplus for export. The country also earned billions of dollars from the export of top quality tobacco, cut flowers and other cash crops. Zanu PF has since completely destroyed the country's agricultural sector together with the rest of the once booming economy.
Today Zimbabwe is rely on imported food aid - the country is so impoverish it cannot even pay for the imported food!
We live in the day and age when mankind has used his ingenuity to turn deserts into green orchards. And yet Zimbabweans are starving in a country that is, for all intent and practical purposes, the Garden of Eden. This is a damning indictment on Zanu PF's failed leadership!
The Zanu PF dictatorship must go because it is an affront to the nation and people of Zimbabwe and a serious threat political stability and peace in the country and the region.
"We had our peaceful and non-violent elections and we won more than two thirds majority in parliament," President Mnangagwa told his party supporters at the on-going Zanu PF conference.
Mnangagwa is only putting a brave face just as Ian Smith did in 1965. This Zanu PF dictatorship is just as illegitimate as Smith's regime.
Mnangagwa knows that the people's mandate to govern comes from winning the majority votes in a free, fair and credible elections. Zimbabwe's recent elections were not free, fair and credible.
It is worth noting that Mnangagwa confined himself to talking of the recent elections as "peaceful and non-violent". He did not dare to claim the elections were free, fair and credible because he knows that they were not and has been told so repeatedly.
All the international election observer teams have either confined their comments on the peaceful process or have condemned the process as "biased, unfair and not to acceptable international standards". This is just diplomatic language for the elections were rigged and therefore President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta are illegitimate.
In a healthy and functioning democracy those who rig elections are punished and not rewarded with high office. As stated above, post-independent Zimbabwe is a de facto one-party dictatorship; the Zanu PF thugs control of all the state institutions and have their heavy boot on the nation's throat and so they rig elections and reward themselves with absolute power!
"Musabatikane nemhere mhere irikubva kumaloser, tichatonga five years sezvinotaurwa neConstitution and tavakuisa kumberi kuvaka nekugadzira upfumi hwenyika. (Ignore the noise from the losers, we are going to govern for the next five years as stipulated by the constitution. We are pushing ahead with our policies and programmes designed revive the country's economy.)"
It was the pincer action of the intensifying civil war at home and the increasing international isolation (after the Americans pressured white-ruled SA to end its support of Rhodesia) that forced Smith to accept black rule.
The sledge hammer blows on Mnangagwa to step down are coming from the country's worsening economic meltdown. Decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and lawlessness have left the country's economy in ruins with no hope of any meaning economic recovery have taken a heavy toll on the nation. Unemployment has soared to dizzying heights of 90%, Zimbabweans are now the poorest nation in Africa with 75% of them now living on US$1.00 or less a day. Zimbabwe's economic situation is socially, morally and politically unsustainable.
Even if Mnangagwa and his junta were to use brute force to stop all dissent, which the regime has already send a clear signal it will do with the "shoot to kill" command against protesting the rigged elections on 1 st August. Zanu PF remaining in office until 2023 will only mean one thing - the party will rig the 2023 elections and extend its rule another five years. Another five more years of the 90% unemployment rate and life threatening grinding poverty!
When the chips were down, Ian Smith had the common sense to accept that his white supremacists regime was doomed. Sadly the same cannot be said of tyrants like Mugabe and Mnangagwa, short of putting a gun to his head, they would rather drag the whole nation into the abyss than give up power. Mugabe was lucky that the one pointing the gun at his head a year ago did not have a titchy finger; Mnangagwa may not be so lucky!
"Zanu PF ichatonga! Igotonga! Imi muchongohukura! Nokuhukura! (Zanu PF will rule! And rule! Whilst you (calling for legitimacy) bark! And bark!)" is Mnangagwa's clarion call to his Zanu PF supporters! He made the call during Mugabe's days and has repeated it since taking over with renewed vigour and urgency.
Allowing Zanu PF to rig the elections and stay in power is the most foolish thing the people Zimbabwe has ever done since independence and the nation has paid dearly for it. Today, with the nation standing on the edge of the precipice, the pressure on the nation to atone for its folly could not be greater and more urgent!
Zanu PF rigged the 30 July 2018 elections, the party has no legal mandate to govern and it must step down now - that is not negotiable! After 38 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule it is insane to let this charade continue another day!
If this Zanu PF is still in office in 2023, then we, the people of Zimbabwe, would have failed ourselves.
Source - zsdemocrats.blogspot.com
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