Like Smith, Mnangagwa insist we are economically empowered but denies us the political power to speak for ourselves

During his recent visit to Masvingo Province VP Mnangagwa return to Zanu PF's favourite theme, black economic empowerment.

"A true Zanu-PF leadership takes people were they ought to go, not taking the people where leaders want to be," he said.  "We have a destiny as a people and we are guided by the principle of the revolution which is to ensure every Zimbabwean is economically empowered."

Tyrants have an easy life; they can say whatever they want even if it is a truck load of bull s***t without any fear of being held to account. The Zimbabwe economy is in a total mess and millions of Zimbabweans are living in abject poverty and, as long as Zanu PF remains in power, the nation's future is grim. And yet here we are with Mnangagwa, a senior member of the Zanu PF regime responsible for the economic ruin, wittering about economically empowering the people!

Mnangagwa is one of the ring leaders who masterminded and perfected Zanu PF's vote rigging machinery so that Zimbabweans are denied a meaningful say in on whether Zanu PF has  economically, but politically and socially, empowering them or not.

Ever since Mnangagwa's appointment to first Vice President last year, some people have pinned their hopes of change for the better on the day Mnangagwa takes over from Mugabe, having given up hope of regime change through free and fair elections. But those hopes of change for the better have been dashed because every time Mnangagwa has opened his mouth. He has confirmed that he is just as arrogant, corrupt, greedy and tyrannical as Mugabe himself.

"I therefore ask of all the 12 wards in Chief Chirumanzu's area that you should go to the polls with the headman in front, district chairman following behind with the people and the councillor should also come, then go and vote," Mnangagwa told the people during recent by-election campaign.

"We know that each polling station has its own results, we will want to know from each polling station where the people would have come from and how did they get in. What we might fail to know is how death will come, but anyone who is voting we can trace the pattern because they have one."

The notion that the nation should give Mnangagwa the opportunity to rule and see if he is any better than Mugabe is totally misguided. Mnangagwa would be more interested in consolidating his hold on power by doubling the number of CIO agents so that all his political critics are watched 24/7 and that there is a CIO mole in every village, for example, than in solving the country's serious economic crisis an. He will not care that his hare-brain schemes to consolidate his political power base drag the nation's economy into even deeper and dangerous waters.

Zimbabweans should ignore the political machination going on in Zanu PF and stop hoping against reason that the departure of Mugabe will mark a turning point for the better in the nation's fortunes. We should concentrate on piling the pressure on Mugabe and Zanu PF to accept the implementation of all the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 GPA followed by the holding of fresh elections.
It is only when we have free, fair and credible election that we, the people can have a meaningful say in the governance of the country and whether Zanu PF has indeed economically empowered us or this is just a political lie we are hopeless to refute.

Before independence the whites never tired of telling the world how economically prosperous, happy and even privileged the blacks in Rhodesia were and yet Smith never allowed the blacks any media space to speak for themselves let alone grant blacks a vote. Some things never change because we are still being told Zanu PF has economically empowered us but are still denied a political voice and vote to speak for ourselves.

Yes, of course we want economic empowerment but above all we want political empowerment too. The only reason of denying the people the latter is because those with political power want to short change (as was the case with the white racist regime) or even rip off (as Zanu PF has done) the ordinary people on their economic entitlement.

We should stop wasting our time and energy engaging Zanu PF in futile economic debates. We have all had our fill on what are the root causes of the country's economic woes; Zanu PF has maintained it is "the illegal sanctions" and the opposing side has said it is mismanagement and corruption. At the end of the day Zanu PF has done as it pleased without taking into consideration what anyone else said.

Zanu PF conducted national elections to ensure there would never be regime change and thus effectively denying the people a meaningful free vote. And so whether the people themselves believed in Zanu PF's policies or not, the nation was stuck with Zanu PF and whatever course the party set to follow.

For 35 years Zanu PF has dragged this nation down this disastrous political and economic route and we the people have never had a say in the picking of the route and what we have found along the way.

Zanu PF has economically impoverished, not empowered, us but first it politically impoverished so that we will have no voice (no freedom of expression and free media) and no free vote to speak the truth for ourselves and no chance to remove the regime from office regardless how much we suffer economically, socially and politically.

If we are to end our economic suffering we must first reclaim our political power, we must politically empower ourselves - Zanu PF will do everything in its power to frustrate all our efforts in this regard because it is not in the DNA for tyrannical regime to politically empower the people - by demanding the implementation of all the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 GPA and demand the holding of fresh free, fair and credible elections!