Opinion / Columnist
'Seek ye first political kingdom' said Nkrumah - one thing Zanu PF tricking us into giving up
04 Dec 2017 at 07:03hrs | Views
In his classical tale Animal Farm, George Orwell has the witty and sharp –shooter, the pig Squealer, telling the other animals black is white today and the exact opposite tomorrow and the latter believe him. Orwell had modelled his book on real life under a totalitarian dictatorship. Zimbabwe is a totalitarian dictatorship, two weeks ago one dictator was forced to resign and a new one was sworn in a week later. President Mnangagwa has his own witty sharp-shooter in the name of Christopher Mutsvangwa, he has certain hit the ground running.
"We cannot have a country of people without any purpose because the economy is not providing them with opportunities which they want. The focus of the President, immediately, is how to revive this economy. That is where his attention is focused on," he told a Zanu PF Mashonaland West provincial coordinating committee meeting, according to State media.
No doubt the State Media now have several teams follow Mutsvangwa everywhere he goes and give everything he says or does prime-time coverage. (I have send a copy of this article to both the Herald and Chronicle, knowing fully well the email will be deleted on receipt and trash emptied. The place is crawling with CIOs masquerading as journalists and they all live in constant fear of their colleagues telling the powers-that-be that they were working for regime change – a crime worse than high treason.)
"The route which we have taken is the route of wealth, the route of money, prosperity and building a model African country, which no other African has ever done. The route of having an economy that grows at a rate of 10, 15, 20 per cent per annum for the next 10 to 20 years," said Mutsvangwa.
This is just a repeat of what the deposed President Robert Mugabe and the rest of the Zanu PF leadership including Mutsvangwa and Mnangagwa had said soon after independence. "Gutsa ruzhinji!" (Mass prosperity!) the nation was told then. Today Zimbabwe is the poorest nation on earth with unemployment soaring to the nauseating height of 90%. 72.3% of our people are living on US$ 1.00 or less a day.
So, instead of mass prosperity the nation got mass poverty.
It is not that the people of Zimbabwe did not know the root cause of the country's economic decline, we did. It was the gross mismanagement and the rampant corruption brought about by the Zanu PF political patronage system spawned by Mugabe and the Zanu PF dictatorship. The political patronage system's primary task was to help Mugabe establish and retain the de facto one-party dictatorship at all cost. The economic decline was one of the costs but well worth the price, as far as Mugabe and his cronies were concerned.
Zimbabwe's economic decline was caused by the gross mismanagement and rampant corruption in the first instance but these have been allowed to grow and spread to the life-threatening cancerous tumours they are total because for 37 years the nation could not do anything to end the mismanagement and corruption. Zanu PF rigged elections to stay in power and as long as the party remained in office the regime stop the dismantling of the patronage system that helped it to remain in power.
For the last 20 years, the nation has turned its attention from dealing with the economic problems to address the political problem of the dictatorship itself. Until we found ways to stop Zanu PF rigging elections, there was no hope of the regime dismantling the system it has created to keep it in power. Implementing democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections has become the clarion call.
"Leave our President alone. Give him a chance. He means well for Zimbabwe and the people of Zimbabwe are solidly behind him. Please do not try him before he has even started. Don't condemn him before he has even started," pleaded the passionate Mutsvangwa.
"I am saying this because all the papers have started attacking the new President. He is being judged in 37 hours more than someone who has been in power for 37 years."
If the truth be told Special Advisor Mutsvangwa, President Mnangagwa and 99.99% of his administration have been in the Zanu PF government and/or dictatorship for donkey years. Mnangagwa himself has been Mugabe's right hand man and chief enforcer for 37 years and it is therefore a nonsense this Mnangagwa administration to pretend it had nothing to do with the disastrous failures of the last 37 years. Worse still, this administration cannot disown the Zanu PF dictatorship but only as a cover for doing nothing to dismantle it.
As Mutsvangwa himself readily admitted President Mnangagwa is focusing all his time and energy on the economy and has never ever said anything about implementing the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections. Just supposing Mnangagwa fails to deliver on his promise of "a model African country" just as Mugabe before him failed to deliver "gutsa ruzhinji"; with no guaranteed free, fair and credible elections; we will be stuck with him until another putsch force him at gun point to resign.
President Mnangagwa can continue in his efforts to revive the economy, we all welcome that. But there is no excuse why he cannot implement the democratic reforms necessary for free and fair elections. We insist on that!
Indeed, the economic measure to end mismanagement and corruption are best done by a regime with popular electoral mandate of the people and not by a regime whose political base is totally dependent on the men and women behind the mismanagement and corruption.
"Seek ye first the political kingdom and all else shall be added unto you," said Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first post –independence president.
What Nkrumah meant was simple and clear enough; only when the people have a meaningful political say can they force those in power to share out the economic wealth fairly. Before independence Mugabe and his cronies sort to wrestle political power from the white. But as soon as they were in power they have systematically usurped the ordinary people's political power to hold the regime to account.
Zimbabweans are poor and back to where we started before independence fighting for a meaningful say in the governance of the country as the first step to securing our other political freedoms human and economic rights.
Comrade Mutsvangwa, Mnangagwa and the rest in the Zanu PF dictatorship are doing their best to trick us into believing we do not need free and fair elections and that they have our best economic interests at heart. We should just accept their word for it and not demand to have a meaningful political say. After 37 years of ruinous misrule, we would be very foolish to fall for that nonsense ever again.
We must seek political reforms, free and fair elections and the economic prosperity will follow.
We demand the implementation of all the democratic reforms to ensure next year's elections are free and fair; this is not negotiable!
"We cannot have a country of people without any purpose because the economy is not providing them with opportunities which they want. The focus of the President, immediately, is how to revive this economy. That is where his attention is focused on," he told a Zanu PF Mashonaland West provincial coordinating committee meeting, according to State media.
No doubt the State Media now have several teams follow Mutsvangwa everywhere he goes and give everything he says or does prime-time coverage. (I have send a copy of this article to both the Herald and Chronicle, knowing fully well the email will be deleted on receipt and trash emptied. The place is crawling with CIOs masquerading as journalists and they all live in constant fear of their colleagues telling the powers-that-be that they were working for regime change – a crime worse than high treason.)
"The route which we have taken is the route of wealth, the route of money, prosperity and building a model African country, which no other African has ever done. The route of having an economy that grows at a rate of 10, 15, 20 per cent per annum for the next 10 to 20 years," said Mutsvangwa.
This is just a repeat of what the deposed President Robert Mugabe and the rest of the Zanu PF leadership including Mutsvangwa and Mnangagwa had said soon after independence. "Gutsa ruzhinji!" (Mass prosperity!) the nation was told then. Today Zimbabwe is the poorest nation on earth with unemployment soaring to the nauseating height of 90%. 72.3% of our people are living on US$ 1.00 or less a day.
So, instead of mass prosperity the nation got mass poverty.
It is not that the people of Zimbabwe did not know the root cause of the country's economic decline, we did. It was the gross mismanagement and the rampant corruption brought about by the Zanu PF political patronage system spawned by Mugabe and the Zanu PF dictatorship. The political patronage system's primary task was to help Mugabe establish and retain the de facto one-party dictatorship at all cost. The economic decline was one of the costs but well worth the price, as far as Mugabe and his cronies were concerned.
Zimbabwe's economic decline was caused by the gross mismanagement and rampant corruption in the first instance but these have been allowed to grow and spread to the life-threatening cancerous tumours they are total because for 37 years the nation could not do anything to end the mismanagement and corruption. Zanu PF rigged elections to stay in power and as long as the party remained in office the regime stop the dismantling of the patronage system that helped it to remain in power.
For the last 20 years, the nation has turned its attention from dealing with the economic problems to address the political problem of the dictatorship itself. Until we found ways to stop Zanu PF rigging elections, there was no hope of the regime dismantling the system it has created to keep it in power. Implementing democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections has become the clarion call.
"Leave our President alone. Give him a chance. He means well for Zimbabwe and the people of Zimbabwe are solidly behind him. Please do not try him before he has even started. Don't condemn him before he has even started," pleaded the passionate Mutsvangwa.
"I am saying this because all the papers have started attacking the new President. He is being judged in 37 hours more than someone who has been in power for 37 years."
If the truth be told Special Advisor Mutsvangwa, President Mnangagwa and 99.99% of his administration have been in the Zanu PF government and/or dictatorship for donkey years. Mnangagwa himself has been Mugabe's right hand man and chief enforcer for 37 years and it is therefore a nonsense this Mnangagwa administration to pretend it had nothing to do with the disastrous failures of the last 37 years. Worse still, this administration cannot disown the Zanu PF dictatorship but only as a cover for doing nothing to dismantle it.
As Mutsvangwa himself readily admitted President Mnangagwa is focusing all his time and energy on the economy and has never ever said anything about implementing the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections. Just supposing Mnangagwa fails to deliver on his promise of "a model African country" just as Mugabe before him failed to deliver "gutsa ruzhinji"; with no guaranteed free, fair and credible elections; we will be stuck with him until another putsch force him at gun point to resign.
President Mnangagwa can continue in his efforts to revive the economy, we all welcome that. But there is no excuse why he cannot implement the democratic reforms necessary for free and fair elections. We insist on that!
Indeed, the economic measure to end mismanagement and corruption are best done by a regime with popular electoral mandate of the people and not by a regime whose political base is totally dependent on the men and women behind the mismanagement and corruption.
"Seek ye first the political kingdom and all else shall be added unto you," said Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first post –independence president.
What Nkrumah meant was simple and clear enough; only when the people have a meaningful political say can they force those in power to share out the economic wealth fairly. Before independence Mugabe and his cronies sort to wrestle political power from the white. But as soon as they were in power they have systematically usurped the ordinary people's political power to hold the regime to account.
Zimbabweans are poor and back to where we started before independence fighting for a meaningful say in the governance of the country as the first step to securing our other political freedoms human and economic rights.
Comrade Mutsvangwa, Mnangagwa and the rest in the Zanu PF dictatorship are doing their best to trick us into believing we do not need free and fair elections and that they have our best economic interests at heart. We should just accept their word for it and not demand to have a meaningful political say. After 37 years of ruinous misrule, we would be very foolish to fall for that nonsense ever again.
We must seek political reforms, free and fair elections and the economic prosperity will follow.
We demand the implementation of all the democratic reforms to ensure next year's elections are free and fair; this is not negotiable!
Source - zsdemocrats.blogspot.co
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