News / Press Release
Zanu-PF Conference: Much ado about nothing
10 Dec 2015 at 16:00hrs | Views
The ZANU PF annual circus rolls into the magnificent national resort of Victoria Falls while a bewildered and bemused nation wonders how a group of men and women can recklessly sacrifice this beautiful country and its hardworking citizens to such torture, cruel and degrading misrule for 35 long years.
The ZANU PF strip tease is being held in the context of a state in crisis leaving the citizens wondering the rationale and mindset of spending at least US$6 million on a worthless extravaganza while 3 million citizens are starving.
Of the many resolution that will be passed in Victoria Falls, the most shocking one will be the endorsement of Robert Mugabe as the ZANU PF presidential candidate for the 2018 general election. That resolution will be an insult to the dignity of Zimbabwe as a nation-state, the millions of suffering Zimbabweans as well as the thousands of heroes and liberators who lost their lives during the struggle for decolonization.
What is even more shameful is the fact that Robert Mugabe, old as he is and in his wisdom or lack of it, will accept the nomination.
Mr Mugabe assumed the leadership of the country in 1980 when it was considered the crown jewel of sub-Saharan Africa. 35 years down the line, Zimbabwe is a ship of wreck thanks to Mugabe's misrule. The Mugabe legacy includes an economy where 91% of Zimbabweans are in the informal sector and 70% of the population lives in abject poverty surviving on less than a dollar per day.
The Mugabe rule has overseen the massive deindustrialization of Zimbabwe due to self induced policy distortions. The entire country represents a carcass of industrial capacity evidenced by the collapse of huge conglomerates such as ZISCO, NRZ, ZECO, David Whitehead, ZIMASCO, CSC, Cotton Marketing Board, Mutare Board and Paper Mills, Gullivers, Shabanie-Mashava Mine, Mhangura Mine to name just a few.
Apart from industrial capacity, the state of infrastructure is an indictment against Mugabe's regime. Despite an installed capacity of 2000 mega watts of electricity Zimbabwe is only generating a paltry 600 mega watts of power in a cycle. Zimbabwe has become the blackout capital of the continent. The same destruction is witnessed in the state of our roads and railways which have all but become death traps.
Zimbabwe's social indicators leave a lot to be desired. Zimbabwe dismally failed to meet major targets of the MDGs scoring disastrous marks in key sectors such as health, welfare and education. Perhaps the biggest indictment on Mugabe is the food security situation in the country. In the 1980s, Zimbabwe was a net food grower and virtually the ‘breadbasket' of the region.
35 years of Mugabe's misrule has reduced Zimbabwe to a basket case of the region producing an average of less than 1200 metric tonnes of maize per year for the last 4 years. In the same period Malawi, which is relatively smaller than Zimbabwe, has been averaging 3, 5 metric tonnes per year. Maize yields which used to average 7 tonnes per hectare is now at an average of 0, 7 tonnes per hectare.
Given this history and legacy, it is shocking that anyone can suggest that this man, the butcher of the Zimbabwean dream, can be asked to lead this country. Mugabe will be 94 years old in 2018 and it is punishment for an old man like him to carry the burden of state craft and development.
In fact in this light, one of the biggest mistakes of those who wrote our national constitution was to fail to put a clause providing for an upper age limit for the country's Chief Executive Officer. As PDP we argue that the constitution should make it clear that anyone above the age of 75 should not be allowed to be president. Such a provision is in the national interests.
It is insane for President Mugabe in his state of advanced age to continue running around purporting to be the effective Head of the State of Zimbabwe now or in 2018. He clearly is no longer in control. The danger now is that Zimbabwe is being run by an undemocratic, unruly and clearly insane element operating the government from a kitchen in Borrowdale.
This is unacceptable and the people of Zimbabwe must collectively say NO to this dangerous status quo. Never have there been a case and a time for Zimbabweans to come together and say NO to this unacceptable status quo than now. In this vein, the PDP calls for all progressive political parties, civil society, students, the peasants, informal traders, the Diaspora, the regional and international communities to come together and work towards national convergence to give birth to the National Transitional Authority (NTA).
The ZANU PF strip tease is being held in the context of a state in crisis leaving the citizens wondering the rationale and mindset of spending at least US$6 million on a worthless extravaganza while 3 million citizens are starving.
Of the many resolution that will be passed in Victoria Falls, the most shocking one will be the endorsement of Robert Mugabe as the ZANU PF presidential candidate for the 2018 general election. That resolution will be an insult to the dignity of Zimbabwe as a nation-state, the millions of suffering Zimbabweans as well as the thousands of heroes and liberators who lost their lives during the struggle for decolonization.
What is even more shameful is the fact that Robert Mugabe, old as he is and in his wisdom or lack of it, will accept the nomination.
Mr Mugabe assumed the leadership of the country in 1980 when it was considered the crown jewel of sub-Saharan Africa. 35 years down the line, Zimbabwe is a ship of wreck thanks to Mugabe's misrule. The Mugabe legacy includes an economy where 91% of Zimbabweans are in the informal sector and 70% of the population lives in abject poverty surviving on less than a dollar per day.
The Mugabe rule has overseen the massive deindustrialization of Zimbabwe due to self induced policy distortions. The entire country represents a carcass of industrial capacity evidenced by the collapse of huge conglomerates such as ZISCO, NRZ, ZECO, David Whitehead, ZIMASCO, CSC, Cotton Marketing Board, Mutare Board and Paper Mills, Gullivers, Shabanie-Mashava Mine, Mhangura Mine to name just a few.
Zimbabwe's social indicators leave a lot to be desired. Zimbabwe dismally failed to meet major targets of the MDGs scoring disastrous marks in key sectors such as health, welfare and education. Perhaps the biggest indictment on Mugabe is the food security situation in the country. In the 1980s, Zimbabwe was a net food grower and virtually the ‘breadbasket' of the region.
35 years of Mugabe's misrule has reduced Zimbabwe to a basket case of the region producing an average of less than 1200 metric tonnes of maize per year for the last 4 years. In the same period Malawi, which is relatively smaller than Zimbabwe, has been averaging 3, 5 metric tonnes per year. Maize yields which used to average 7 tonnes per hectare is now at an average of 0, 7 tonnes per hectare.
Given this history and legacy, it is shocking that anyone can suggest that this man, the butcher of the Zimbabwean dream, can be asked to lead this country. Mugabe will be 94 years old in 2018 and it is punishment for an old man like him to carry the burden of state craft and development.
In fact in this light, one of the biggest mistakes of those who wrote our national constitution was to fail to put a clause providing for an upper age limit for the country's Chief Executive Officer. As PDP we argue that the constitution should make it clear that anyone above the age of 75 should not be allowed to be president. Such a provision is in the national interests.
It is insane for President Mugabe in his state of advanced age to continue running around purporting to be the effective Head of the State of Zimbabwe now or in 2018. He clearly is no longer in control. The danger now is that Zimbabwe is being run by an undemocratic, unruly and clearly insane element operating the government from a kitchen in Borrowdale.
This is unacceptable and the people of Zimbabwe must collectively say NO to this dangerous status quo. Never have there been a case and a time for Zimbabweans to come together and say NO to this unacceptable status quo than now. In this vein, the PDP calls for all progressive political parties, civil society, students, the peasants, informal traders, the Diaspora, the regional and international communities to come together and work towards national convergence to give birth to the National Transitional Authority (NTA).
Source - Moses Manyengavana, PDP Youth Assembly President
