Opinion / Columnist
To opposition implementing reforms is like belling the cat, Mugabe - a paper tiger
16 Jun 2016 at 14:35hrs | Views
"Zanu PF will never ever win free, fair and credible elections!" this is a simple truth that even the most fervent Zanu PF supporter will ready admit. The people are not stupid, they know the party has failed to deliver mass prosperity "gutsa ruzhinji" President Mugabe has often promised; the economic reality speaks for its.
Meaning:
"To bell the cat" - to perform a very dangerous or very difficult task; - taken metaphorically from a fable about a mouse who proposes to put a bell on a cat, so as to be able to hear the cat coming. - thefreedictionary.com
Source: www.hushnirs.org/macroeconomics_/en/zimbabwe__gdp.html
President Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies are responsible for the nation's economic decline and no amount of denial or propaganda can hide this, the figures speak for themselves.
From the word go President Mugabe has followed this spend, spend voodoo economics, confident it would deliver "gutsa ruzhinji". Of course this was nonsense; Zimbabweans' per capita earning rose from $995 to peak at $1209 and from there now it has been downhill ever since.
Talk of the country's pathetic economic performs and the Zanu PF propaganda machine will, in a flash, go into overdrive. It is the "illegal sanctions imposed by the evil British and their western allies" that are to blame. The sanctions were imposed in 2002 and yet Zimbabwe's economic decline started way back in 1982.
The single most damaging act by President Mugabe was the violence seizure of white-owned farms that started in earnest in 2000. He had very little of value left other than the white owned farms to give away to his demanding but wasteful cronies. The cronies got the farms but failed to maintain production; agricultural production fell through the floor and, sadly, has never recovered to this day.
Agricultural production was Zimbabwe's economic engine and it is not surprising that the Zimbabwe economy suffered its worst ever decline, - 8.2% growth rate.
President Mugabe's decision print money to finance his reckless spending only forced the Z$ to lose its value fuelled inflation to a record 500 billion per cent by the time the regime scrapped the Z$ in November 2008. This was the year the economy sunk to its lowest ever; GDP per capita fell to US$ 452.
Life expectancy, the ultimate acid test of a nation's wellbeing, has plummeted from 68 years in 1980 to a misery 34 years in 2004 according to some sources.
"Matadya kare haavaraidze mwana! Nyangwe benzi chikwinya renoriva tsvete yamangwana, mangwana." so goes the Shona adage. (Memories of yesterday's feasting will never comfort a hungry child. Even a certified fool will soon learn not to chase the mirage of tomorrow!)
As the people realized that President Mugabe will never deliver gutsa ruzhinji and were sick and tired of being promised a mirage they harden their resolve to vote him out of office. So to stay in power President Mugabe has resorted to dirty and dirtier tactics to rig the vote including violence.
Whilst the Zimbabwe economy had registered some economic recovery during the GNU years it has since the rigged 2013 elections been back on it's the decline once again. The regime is introducing bond notes in August/October; many see it as the Z$ back through the back door and the days of hyperinflation as the regime will soon be printing more bond notes.
If the country was to hold free, fair and credible elections, there is no way Zanu PF would win! So why is the country's opposition parties wasting time of building coalitions, holding demos and Joice Mujuru and her ZimPF has joined in this with a number of rallies lined up in the coming few weeks and yet doing nothing to ensure the elections are free and fair, Nomusa Garikai and other has been asking?
"If the 2018 elections are rigged then Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends (Mujuru and her ZimPF too) will walk the plank to join Arthur Mutambara into political retirement because they would have proven beyond doubt that they corrupt, incompetent and useless! I will put them to the sword myself just to be absolutely certain that this time these useless politicians finally retire from all public life for good," concluded Nomusa.
None of the opposition leaders -Tsvangirai, Mujuru, etc. – have the intellect to take Mugabe head-on on this matter because they have no clue where to begin. The 2008 GPA put the implementing of the democratic reforms, design to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship to allow free and fair elections, at the heart of the GNU. SADC Heads of State who were the guarantor of the agreement wanted the reforms to be implemented but sadly MDC, their partner in the GNU, was not interested. SADC leaders tried their best to get Tsvangirai et al to implement the reforms but were ignored.
Of course Joice Mujuru and her Zim PF know Zanu PF is unelectable and will lose free and fair elections but they too do not know how they can force Mugabe to implement the democratic reforms.
Zimbabwe's opposition have nothing to fear in Mugabe and his thugs but fear itself. Even Mugabe himself has never dared to claim that the people have no right to free and fair elections, he has no right to rig elections. As the people's elected representative, the opposition have the mandate to demand the full restoration of the people's freedoms and rights. Like all tyrants, Mugabe is nothing but a paper tiger our opposition leaders are just too corrupt and incompetent to see it!
If the 2018 elections are rigged because the opposition failed to implement any democratic reforms then it is for the people of Zimbabwe themselves must put Tsvangirai, Mujuru and company to the sword and force them into political retirement. If you have a troublesome rat to get rid of it is sometimes necessary to start by getting rid of the useless cat!
Meaning:
"To bell the cat" - to perform a very dangerous or very difficult task; - taken metaphorically from a fable about a mouse who proposes to put a bell on a cat, so as to be able to hear the cat coming. - thefreedictionary.com
Source: www.hushnirs.org/macroeconomics_/en/zimbabwe__gdp.html
President Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies are responsible for the nation's economic decline and no amount of denial or propaganda can hide this, the figures speak for themselves.
From the word go President Mugabe has followed this spend, spend voodoo economics, confident it would deliver "gutsa ruzhinji". Of course this was nonsense; Zimbabweans' per capita earning rose from $995 to peak at $1209 and from there now it has been downhill ever since.
Talk of the country's pathetic economic performs and the Zanu PF propaganda machine will, in a flash, go into overdrive. It is the "illegal sanctions imposed by the evil British and their western allies" that are to blame. The sanctions were imposed in 2002 and yet Zimbabwe's economic decline started way back in 1982.
The single most damaging act by President Mugabe was the violence seizure of white-owned farms that started in earnest in 2000. He had very little of value left other than the white owned farms to give away to his demanding but wasteful cronies. The cronies got the farms but failed to maintain production; agricultural production fell through the floor and, sadly, has never recovered to this day.
Agricultural production was Zimbabwe's economic engine and it is not surprising that the Zimbabwe economy suffered its worst ever decline, - 8.2% growth rate.
President Mugabe's decision print money to finance his reckless spending only forced the Z$ to lose its value fuelled inflation to a record 500 billion per cent by the time the regime scrapped the Z$ in November 2008. This was the year the economy sunk to its lowest ever; GDP per capita fell to US$ 452.
Life expectancy, the ultimate acid test of a nation's wellbeing, has plummeted from 68 years in 1980 to a misery 34 years in 2004 according to some sources.
"Matadya kare haavaraidze mwana! Nyangwe benzi chikwinya renoriva tsvete yamangwana, mangwana." so goes the Shona adage. (Memories of yesterday's feasting will never comfort a hungry child. Even a certified fool will soon learn not to chase the mirage of tomorrow!)
As the people realized that President Mugabe will never deliver gutsa ruzhinji and were sick and tired of being promised a mirage they harden their resolve to vote him out of office. So to stay in power President Mugabe has resorted to dirty and dirtier tactics to rig the vote including violence.
Whilst the Zimbabwe economy had registered some economic recovery during the GNU years it has since the rigged 2013 elections been back on it's the decline once again. The regime is introducing bond notes in August/October; many see it as the Z$ back through the back door and the days of hyperinflation as the regime will soon be printing more bond notes.
If the country was to hold free, fair and credible elections, there is no way Zanu PF would win! So why is the country's opposition parties wasting time of building coalitions, holding demos and Joice Mujuru and her ZimPF has joined in this with a number of rallies lined up in the coming few weeks and yet doing nothing to ensure the elections are free and fair, Nomusa Garikai and other has been asking?
"If the 2018 elections are rigged then Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends (Mujuru and her ZimPF too) will walk the plank to join Arthur Mutambara into political retirement because they would have proven beyond doubt that they corrupt, incompetent and useless! I will put them to the sword myself just to be absolutely certain that this time these useless politicians finally retire from all public life for good," concluded Nomusa.
None of the opposition leaders -Tsvangirai, Mujuru, etc. – have the intellect to take Mugabe head-on on this matter because they have no clue where to begin. The 2008 GPA put the implementing of the democratic reforms, design to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship to allow free and fair elections, at the heart of the GNU. SADC Heads of State who were the guarantor of the agreement wanted the reforms to be implemented but sadly MDC, their partner in the GNU, was not interested. SADC leaders tried their best to get Tsvangirai et al to implement the reforms but were ignored.
Of course Joice Mujuru and her Zim PF know Zanu PF is unelectable and will lose free and fair elections but they too do not know how they can force Mugabe to implement the democratic reforms.
Zimbabwe's opposition have nothing to fear in Mugabe and his thugs but fear itself. Even Mugabe himself has never dared to claim that the people have no right to free and fair elections, he has no right to rig elections. As the people's elected representative, the opposition have the mandate to demand the full restoration of the people's freedoms and rights. Like all tyrants, Mugabe is nothing but a paper tiger our opposition leaders are just too corrupt and incompetent to see it!
If the 2018 elections are rigged because the opposition failed to implement any democratic reforms then it is for the people of Zimbabwe themselves must put Tsvangirai, Mujuru and company to the sword and force them into political retirement. If you have a troublesome rat to get rid of it is sometimes necessary to start by getting rid of the useless cat!
Source - Patrick Guramatunhu
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