Economic hardships are to test limit of povo's resilience - macabre experiment

"The turn of the 21st century was not good for Zimbabwe as the country was slapped with illegal sanctions by the west which led to the closure of many industries. Despite going for nearly two decades with no meaningful capital investments coming our way, Zimbabwe did not go down owing to the resilience of its citizens," wrote Elijah Chihota, a well-known Zanu PF apologist.

Ever since former President Robert Mugabe admitted that Zimbabwe was "swindled" of a staggering $15 billion in diamond revenue in 2016; Zanu PF propaganda blaming sanctions for the nation's economic woes stopped. Everyone knew Mugabe had finally let the cat out of the bag; it was the rampant corruption that was the cancer killing the Zimbabwe economy, not the sanctions.

However, Zanu PF apologists are back to blaming sanctions for the country's worsening economic meltdown because the regime has failed to deal with the cancerous problem of corruption.

When Mnangagwa seized power a year ago, he promised to end corruption."There will be zero tolerance to corruption!" he said.

I say Mnangagwa and not President Mnangagwa to underline the fact that he was not elected by the people in the recent elections.

It is now, a year since coming into power and Mnangawgwa has not arrested even one of the diamond swindler and recovered even one dollar of the looted $15 billion. Worse still, the diamond mining is still taking place under the same conditions; i.e. the looting is still going on to this day.

Mnangagwa, just like Mugabe before him, cannot stamp out corruption because he is corrupt himself.

One has to be really naive to believe Mugabe's Blue Roof mansion was built with money from "Zanu PF membership subscriptions," as George Charamba once claimed. Charamba would have us believe that all Mugabe's other amassed wealth and lavish lifestyle were all paid for from the generosity of impoverished party members.

Mnangagwa is one of the wealthiest individual in Zimbabwe. He was named by the UN as one of the Zimbabwe leaders who looted wealth from DRC. So Charamba can spare us another one of his hen's teeth nonsense.

Mnangagwa cannot tell those around him to stop looting; they will remind him of his own amassed wealth and tell him to his face that they are playing catch-up!

Yes, Chihota, Zimbabwe has been starved of meaningful investment for the last 20 years but not because of targeted sanctions against some Zanu PF leaders. The investment dried up long before the sanctions were imposed. Investors, local and foreign, do not like doing business in a country where corrupt is rampant and there is economic chaos and no rule of law.

38 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have taken a heavy toll on the Zimbabwe economy, it is in ruins. Unemployment has soared to 90%, basic services such as health care and supply of clean water have collapsed, etc. 75% of our people now live on US$1.00 or less a day.

Zimbabweans are the poorest nation in the poorest continent on earth!

"Zimbabwe did not go down owing to the resilience of its citizens!" says Chihota. So, did Zanu PF destroy the nation's economy to test the people's resilience?

Are we to understand then that Zanu PF is performing some macabre experiment to establish how much economic hardship and political oppression ordinary Zimbabweans can endure without staging mass protests. On the other hand the ruling elite are granting themselves absolute power and all the influence and wealth it brings, to tested if there is no limit of their insatiable appetites! How convenient!

Chihota, Zimbabwe has gone down! Which part of "75% of our people are living on US$1.00 or less a day" are you, Chihota, and your Zanu PF masters failing to understand!!!

The root cause why Zimbabwe has a government that cares about the selfish interests of the few ruling elite and does not care about the suffering and deaths of ordinary citizens is because the ruling elite have a political voice and the people have none.

"The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures," reads Section 21 subsection 3 the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This is not the case in Zimbabweans; for the last 38 years, Zanu PF has blatantly rigged elections and we, the people, have allowed the regime to get away with it. This has set a bad and dangerous precedence; one we must put right, much more so now given the nation's very survival is at stake if we fail.

Mnangagwa and his junta rigged the recent elections, they have no mandate to govern and therefore they must be forced to step down. As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and  vote rigging toads the country's economic meltdown will only get worse.

Zanu PF thugs have held this nation to ransom for the last 38 years, this must come to an end now! Mnangagwa et al must step down, that is not negotiable!