COMMENT - I believe Joice Mujuru's account. I think it is highly telling that all of a sudden the British government doesn't talk abut Gukurahandi anymore, or that certain Ministers are making anti-landreform noises. This is an attack on the people of Zimbabwe by neoliberalism taking over both parties, like they do everywhere else (US, UK, etc.). This is anti-democratic and cheating. This is a hostile act. This is spiking the process to cheat the electorate out of their policies and candidates. This also shows the benefits of having 2 vice presidents.
“Everybody must know that this government is not a people’s government,” she said. “It came by force and if they see people doing things in peace, they are not happy.”
(NEWZIMBABWE) Mujuru attacked after meeting Mugabe
IN what some say could explain the Thursday attack on Joice Mujuru, it has emerged that the former Vice President recently reconnected with ousted former president Robert Mugabe.
Sources told New Zimbabwe that Mujuru reconnected with Mugabe on Tuesday adding that there were prospects that she could come together with fired Zanu PF members to form an alliance ahead of the 2018 elections.
According to the National People's Party leader, she was “called” by
Mugabe who told her that it was wrong to fire her in 2014 as
he was “misinformed”.
“He called me and I obliged. He was telling me what happened was wrong, he was misinformed,” said Mujuru in an interview with the Voice of America (VOA).
According to the report, Mujuru said she felt vindicated after her “constant denials of plotting to overthrow Mugabe, were ignored by the then president and his wife, Grace, who initiated the calls for her ouster”.
“You know for a start, I told him (Mugabe) that they were not … it wasn’t me…Its people who are after Mugabe who you know are doing all these things. And it has, I’ve, I’ve have been vindicated by what I said to him,” Mujuru said, according to the VOA report.
Then President and VP ... Mugabe and Mujuru
“I forgave him a long time ago, including the, the wife.”
“They (Mugabe, his wife Grace) were tricked, and mind you the same people who are now in control are the very same people who went and tricked Mugabe,” said Mujuru, in apparent reference president Emmerson Mnangagwa.
“So, they knew what they wanted to do – they wanted me out of the way first, so that they will be able to get to Mugabe easily,” she said.
According to the VOA, Mujuru said “she was happy to find Mugabe in good spirits”.
“He was very happy, I think he’s resting, he’s doing fine. I was very happy to see him in that mood,” she said.
Mujuru said she didn’t think her former boss was still under house arrest.
“No, not house arrest as such,” she said. “Of course, being a former president he should have people who guard him such as soldiers, they could be soldiers and policemen all included, because that is how he used to move, even when he was still head of state.”
“Now that he is in this predicament, aaah, we were actually laughing, you know, I just said to him, ah, you know what, when you are in this situation people desert (you), and he said yes, even relatives have deserted.”
According to the VOA, Mujuru blames the new government for the Thursday attack which resulted in her and several of her members, seeking treatment at local hospitals adding that she was “not sure who attacked her or with what, but that the attackers included soldiers”.
“Everybody must know that this government is not a people’s government,” she said. “It came by force and if they see people doing things in peace, they are not happy.”
Labels: EMMERSON MNANGAGWA, JOICE MUJURU, MDC TREASON, NEOLIBERALISM, TREASON
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COMMENT - 'Targeted measures' is are weasel words, intended to imply that economic sanctions only extend to and therefore impact government ministers - they mean economic and financial sanctions, which are of course targeted at everyone. Sanctions like ZDERA that destroyed the Zimbabwe Dollar affected everyone. - MrK
MDC Alliance principals said they were for economic and social reforms, stabilization and international re-engagement that will give Zimbabweans a fighting chance in the crucial and landmark 2018 general elections.
They said a lot more than that.
(NEWZIMBABWE) Mnangagwa: sanctions crippling Zimbabwe
JUST two days after the US announced that sanctions imposed on Harare would remain in place until the new administration implements political and economic reforms, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has called for the lifting of the targeted measures.
Mnangagwa, speaking during the Central Committee meeting held in Harare on Thursday, said the sanctions were hampering economic development.
The US and the European Union nations imposed sanctions on former President Robert Mugabe’s government for gross human rights violations and electoral theft.
Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe is now ready to re-engage with the international community and start re-building the country’s economy which collapsed more than a decade ago.
The President re-affirmed his commitment to re-engage with new nations whilst keeping old friends who have given a hand to Zimbabwe during its trying moments (liberation struggle period).
Sanctions must fall ... President Emmerson Mnangagwa
“We call for the unconditional lifting of the political and economic sanctions which have crippled our national development. We realize that isolation is not splendid or viable as there is more to gain through solidarity, mutual beneficial partnerships which however, recognise our unique national interests.
“Government will thus pursue a robust re-engagement process to fully affirm our belonging to the family of nations. The re-engagement strategy will seek to create new relations whilst holding steadfast to those countries that stood by us during our darkest years.
“In this regard, measures will be put in place to attract foreign investment ensuring that Zimbabwe is a place where capital feels safe. It has already begun,” Mnangagwa said.
The US government on Tuesday told MDC Alliance principals who were visiting Washington that sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe two decades ago would stay whilst the country monitors Mnangagwa regarding reforms especially the electoral and economic reforms.
MDC Alliance principals said they were for economic and social reforms, stabilization and international re-engagement that will give Zimbabweans a fighting chance in the crucial and landmark 2018 general elections.
MDC-T Vice President Nelson Chamisa who is part of the delegation has denied accusations by Zimbabwean government that they have pressured the US not to remove the sanctions against Harare.
Labels: DONALD TRUMP, EMMERSON MNANGAGWA, MDC TREASON, SANCTIONS, ZDERA
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COMMENT - Real Zimbabweans see through the MDC and their rhodesian handlers like Peter Godwin. They are busy in Washington DC to call for more and continued sanctions against their own country and government, even under the new government of former VP and now President Mnangagwa. Why aren't they arrested for treason the second they set foot back in Zimbabwe? They are making foreign policy in a foreign country, testifying against their own country before foreign legislators, while they are the opposition? - MrK
(YOUTUBE) USA Wanted to Lift Zimbabwe Sanctions, WATCH Tsvangirai Delegation ask for more Pressure on Zim
TV7 Live Zim News and Buzz
(NEWZIMBABWE) MDC-T denies Trump sanctions appeal
THE opposition MDC Alliance has rubbished claims that it urged the United States (US) administration to maintain sanctions against Zimbabwe.
The allegation follows a diplomatic campaign by Alliance officials Nelson Chamisa and Tendai Biti who are in the US to canvass international support ahead of next year’s crunch elections.
MDC-T spokesperson Obert Gutu said although his party believes the new government should implement political reforms, it does not believe in using sanctions to pressure the Emmerson Mnangagwa-led Harare administration.
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(NEWZIMBABWE) Zim sanctions to remain, says US govt
THE Trump administration will maintain sanctions the United States imposed against Zimbabwe despite the change of leadership in Harare, a senior official has confirmed.
Washington imposed a raft of sanctions against Zimbabwe nearly two decades ago supposedly to force then president Robert Mugabe to change course amid allegations of gross human rights abuses and electoral fraud.
Mugabe rejected the allegations, maintaining instead that Harare was being punished for its controversial land reforms which were meant, he argued, to correct historical injustices in ownership of the key resource.
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Labels: MDC TREASON, PETER GODWIN, SANCTIONS, TENDAI BITI
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(NEWZIMBABWE) Cross’ artful preoccupation with property rights evasive and elitist
25/01/2014 00:00:00
by Bernard Bwoni
EVERYONE has an opinion on property rights hence why there is no universal definition of the term. The definition can and has been evolving over time, thus considering different perspectives, the historical context and background underpinning the Zimbabwe land and property rights issue is necessary.
Property rights are not absolute but just a function of what society is willing to acknowledge, defend and enforce. They may need to be adjusted at some point because they do not evolve optimally on their own. There is not enough empirical evidence in Zimbabwe of how the complex property rights package influences economic behaviour and as such Eddie Cross’ fixation with property rights is not only unreflective but also insincere.
The development economist Daniel W. Bromley in his book, Environment and Economy: Property Rights and Public Policy argued that “property rights do not necessarily imply full ownership and the sole authority to use and dispose of a resource”. To be secure, property rights should be of a sufficient duration to allow one to reap the benefits of the investment and should be backed by an effective, socially sanctioned enforcement institution. Surely a ninety-nine year lease should be “a sufficient duration” for one to benefit from their investment? Most of the former commercial farmers whose farms were redistributed had been there for no more than ninety-nine years and just look at how they had benefited from the land.
The relationship between the rights of the individual and the rights of the community has been constantly changing and without doubt will continue to evolve. We live in a complex and dynamic world where conventional wisdom can be overturned for the good of the majority and it is important to acknowledge that changes in theoretical views on property rights do take place. During the unrestrained land grab by the colonial settlers the rights of the individual settlers took precedence over the collective rights of the indigenous community and in the new Constitution the Zimbabwe government addressed those inequalities created by these historical interactions.
Much of the early property rights literature was quite optimistic about the evolution of property rights towards economic efficiency. The available literature indicate that property rights form the cornerstone of every Western country’s economic modernisation and Hernando De Soto even calls the system of legal property rights the ‘’hidden architecture of modern economies’’ and “if a developing country is willing to succeed economically, property rights which have to be well-defined must be enforced”. De Soto of course did not factor in China which “recognises the right to private property but only as a right bestowed by the state and not as a natural right’’. And, by the way China, is by far the fastest growing economy in the world and is poised to edge the USA as the biggest economy in the world by 2016 or so.
Property rights are theoretical constructs in economics and the discourse needs to reflect that especially on a uniquely multiplex case like Zimbabwe. Property rights are formed and enforced by political entities and they reflect the historical context, the conflicting economic interests and the bargaining strength of those affected. They are the social institutions that define or delimit the range of privileges granted to individuals of specific scarce resources. In the modern economic literature the argument is that it makes sense to have secure property rights as it makes it easy to access finance and credit from financial institutions and promote sustainable development.
Some contemporary development economists have gone as far as stating that sustainable development will only come from stable property rights and that markets are less efficient when property rights do not exist. From a theoretical economic point of view that is true however complexities in different situations need to be acknowledged. That is the only argument that Cross and other proponents are advancing without taking into consideration the historical context. There is an element of imperialism or should I say elitism that has pervaded much of the discourse of property rights in Zimbabwe. I have looked into available literature on property rights on Zimbabwe and there is absolutely nothing and the question is how do you make recommendations without empirical evidence from realities on the ground?
Cross and others have argued that separation of provisions on property rights from rights over agricultural land is fatal as the section in the new Constitution on agricultural lands restricts thus running against natural justice. Part 2, Section 4.29 and Chapter 6 of the Constitution points out that access to agricultural land is seen as a “fundamental right” and that “every citizen of Zimbabwe has a right to acquire, hold, occupy, use, transfer, hypothecate, lease or dispose of agricultural land regardless of his or her race or colour’’. The new Constitution also notes that following the colonial occupation and the triumphant liberation war “the people of Zimbabwe must be enabled to re-assert their rights and regain ownership of their land”. If you read the above clauses then the issue of secure property rights should not be at the centre stage as Cross and others would want us to believe surely.
The land reform in Zimbabwe is irreversible, and that is fact. Property rights with regards to agricultural land fall within the limits set by the State to avoid abuse and the government has set up the Land Commission to address issues of abuse through a transparent land audit which is still pending, and this is all within the bounds of international law. Clause 4.28 of the new Constitution addresses the overall issue of property rights fairly and again in line with international law. The rights are extended to all people and the rights to compensation are recognised. However the issue of property of agricultural land needed to be and was addressed in line with the need to “redress the unjust and unfair pattern of land ownership that was brought about by colonialism”. Conventional economic wisdom tells you that economic progression is based on strong foundation of secure property ownership, but what it does not do is take into account complex interactions on the ground.
Clause 16.4 of the Constitution seeks to protect the continuing rights of persons currently occupying or using agricultural land under a lease or other agreement with government and Clause 16.5 states that the State must take appropriate measures ‘’to give security of tenure to every person lawfully owning or occupying agricultural land”. The Constitution states that not all agricultural land will not be State land and under Clause 16.6 “owners and occupiers will be allowed under the provisions and limits of the law to ‘transfer, hypothecate, lease or dispose of his or her right in agricultural land”. Cross deliberately and superficially addresses the issue of property from a self-serving standpoint without acknowledging the fact that the property rights issue in itself is insufficient in explaining why capitalism has succeeded in the West but failed dismally in other parts of the world. If he can present empirical evidence in Zimbabwe as opposed to mere conjecture then we have somewhere to start from.
Cross’ preoccupation with the issue of secure property rights is intriguing and from the persistency you would think that on its own is the panacea to all our current economic difficulties. The issue of property rights surely cannot be absolute without taking into consideration the realities on the ground. The choices of today are constrained by the decisions and actions of yesterday and, yes, history does matter. The shifting relationships of property and property rights in the Zimbabwean context are contentious and polarising and it is important to adopt a historical outlook to it to garner a better understanding. The discourse around the issue of property rights needs not be unreflective, elusive and self-serving.
Bernard Bwoni can be contacted on bernardbwn@aol.com/ bernardbwoni.blogspot.com
Labels: EDDIE CROSS, LAND REFORM, MDC TREASON, RHODESIANS
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(HERALD ZW) Gono, Biti ties stir hornet’s nest
December 18, 2013
GONO BITITakunda Maodza Assistant News Editor
COMMENT - I've never trusted Gideon 'Crazy Eyes' Gono. He was the one at the helm that oversaw the hyperinflation of the Zimbabwe Dollar. He is also against indigenisation, including of the banks. And now he is defending Tendai Biti? You have to wonder why there is such a relationship of trust between them. As Biti's laywer, Gono would be in a perfect position to screw up his defense. And yet Tendai Biti trusts him to represent him? - MrK
Former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr Gideon Gono has hired MDC-T secretary-general, the lawyer Mr Tendai Biti to fight allegations made by Zanu-PF legislator Dr Munyaradzi Kereke that he was involved in corrupt dealings during his tenure at the apex bank.Zanu-PF Manicaland Province has nominated Dr Gono to fill the vacant Buhera Senate seat, but his cosy relations with senior MDC-T officials is causing unease about where his allegiances lie.
The seat fell vacant following the death of Cde Kumbirai Kangai on August 24.
Mr Biti was Finance Minister from 2009 to earlier this year and worked directly with Dr Gono.
The two were initially sworn enemies, with Mr Biti calling Dr Gono a terrorist who deserved to be shot, but relations have thawed to the point where the MDC-T secretary-general is giving the former RBZ boss legal representation.
Dr Kereke’s graft allegations, involving millions of US dollars, pertain to the time when both Dr Gono and Mr Biti were in Government. Dr Kereke was for a while one of Dr Gono’s most trusted advisors at the RBZ.
Also cited in the court case, which is before the Constitutional Court, is the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission.
Dr Gono is accused of compromising the independence of the anti-graft body through cash and other inducements, all sourced from Government coffers.
Zanu-PF Manicaland provincial chairman Cde John Mvundura yesterday confirmed they had forwarded Dr Gono’s candidature for the Buhera seat to a “higher office”.
However, there is much unease within the Zanu-PF leadership about Dr Gono’s suitability.
Documents in our possession show Dr Gono hired Mr Tendai Biti on December 16, 2013 and that Mr Biti has already made representations to the Constitutional Court on the ex-RBZ chief’s behalf.
While some Zanu-PF officials say it is Dr Gono’s right to get legal representation from any lawyer, his choice of Mr Biti has made many others nervous about his loyalty to the party.
Last night, Cde Mvundura said: “We have dealt with the Dr Gono issue and forwarded our recommendations to the party hierarchy. It is now up to the leadership.”
The nomination was endorsed by the Zanu-PF Manicaland provincial co-ordination committee which met at Marymount Teachers College on December 7. It is understood that the nomination is now before the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission for confirmation.
A senior Zanu-PF official yesterday told The Herald that they were “disturbed” by Dr Gono’s behaviour.
“Dr Gono on Monday hired Biti to represent him in a fraud case in which he and the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission will appear before the Constitutional Court. What is disturbing is the fact that this is happening at a time when he (Dr Gono) wants to be Zanu-PF senator for Buhera yet his trust and faith in Biti is so overwhelming,” he said.
Another official said the “party must consider the implications of giving Gono the Buhera seat when he is wining and dining with the enemy”.
“He is determined to undermine the party and its leadership, especially now after his bid to have his term as RBZ Governor extended failed. We ought to be careful with him,” he said.
But party secretary for administration Cde Didymus Mutasa, who is said to be influential in Zanu-PF Manicaland, said there was nothing wrong with Dr Gono’s decision to work with Mr Biti.
“It is his right to look for the best lawyer. If he thinks Biti is the one he wants to pick, it is up to him. Biti practices in Zimbabwe. He practices in Zimbabwean courts and not in South Africa or England. It is up to Gono to choose who he wants to defend him,” Cde Mutasa said.
But a Zanu-PF Politburo member with close ties to the Zimbabwe Defence Forces countered: “We have been told that some people in MDC-T want to besmirch the image of the military and other security servives and they think they can get help from Gono in doing this. We sincerely hope he does not go rogue.”
What is of particular interest is how the Gono-Biti relationship has mellowed. At one point Mr Biti wanted Dr Gono arrested, and today he is helping him avoid jail.
In the early days of the inclusive Government, Mr Biti vigorously on several occasions pestered Sadc to convene an Extraordinary Summit principally to remove Dr Gono and then Attorney-General Mr Johannes Tomana from office.
So bad were their relations that on May 22, 2009 Dr Gono wrote to then Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai from MDC-T to intervene.
Read part of the letter: “As you may be aware Hon Prime Minister, the strained relations between the Hon Minister of Finance and myself are a matter of public knowledge and, need I say, concern.
“For more than a year now, the minister has uttered, publicly and privately, words and statements that are not only criminally defamatory but also seriously insulting to my person, family and indeed, to the institution that I work for. His misleading statements are also career limiting in my field of finance and economics.
Dr Gono said Mr Biti “accused me of being at the epicentre of (the) Zanu-PF terror machine, an economic saboteur, terrorist and number one Al-Qaeda who deserves to be shot by a firing squad”.
After a year in the inclusive Government, Mr Biti suddenly went mum about Dr Gono.
In 2012, there were reports that Dr Gono helped Mr Tsvangirai access some US$1,5 million to get an official residence as the Prime Minister. At the same time, it is alleged Mr Biti released another US$1 million from Treasury for the same purpose.
The alleged case of double-dipping from State coffers has never been fully made public with all parties involved denying the allegations.
And last month Mr Biti told a radio station, “Gono has the nation at heart although some people wanted to use him and they indeed used him and just dumped him. We first had challenges, but eventually we had a very good working relationship. He had the nation at heart.”
Labels: COURTS, GIDEON GONO, MDC TREASON, TENDAI BITI
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(HERALD ZW) Gono, Biti ties stir hornet’s nest
December 18, 2013
Takunda Maodza Assistant News Editor
Former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr Gideon Gono has hired MDC-T secretary-general, the lawyer Mr Tendai Biti to fight allegations made by Zanu-PF legislator Dr Munyaradzi Kereke that he was involved in corrupt dealings during his tenure at the apex bank.Zanu-PF Manicaland Province has nominated Dr Gono to fill the vacant Buhera Senate seat, but his cosy relations with senior MDC-T officials is causing unease about where his allegiances lie.
The seat fell vacant following the death of Cde Kumbirai Kangai on August 24. Mr Biti was Finance Minister from 2009 to earlier this year and worked directly with Dr Gono.
The two were initially sworn enemies, with Mr Biti calling Dr Gono a terrorist who deserved to be shot, but relations have thawed to the point where the MDC-T secretary-general is giving the former RBZ boss legal representation.
Dr Kereke’s graft allegations, involving millions of US dollars, pertain to the time when both Dr Gono and Mr Biti were in Government. Dr Kereke was for a while one of Dr Gono’s most trusted advisors at the RBZ.
Also cited in the court case, which is before the Constitutional Court, is the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission.
Dr Gono is accused of compromising the independence of the anti-graft body through cash and other inducements, all sourced from Government coffers.
Zanu-PF Manicaland provincial chairman Cde John Mvundura yesterday confirmed they had forwarded Dr Gono’s candidature for the Buhera seat to a “higher office”.
However, there is much unease within the Zanu-PF leadership about Dr Gono’s suitability.
Documents in our possession show Dr Gono hired Mr Tendai Biti on December 16, 2013 and that Mr Biti has already made representations to the Constitutional Court on the ex-RBZ chief’s behalf.
While some Zanu-PF officials say it is Dr Gono’s right to get legal representation from any lawyer, his choice of Mr Biti has made many others nervous about his loyalty to the party.
Last night, Cde Mvundura said: “We have dealt with the Dr Gono issue and forwarded our recommendations to the party hierarchy. It is now up to the leadership.”
The nomination was endorsed by the Zanu-PF Manicaland provincial co-ordination committee which met at Marymount Teachers College on December 7. It is understood that the nomination is now before the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission for confirmation.
A senior Zanu-PF official yesterday told The Herald that they were “disturbed” by Dr Gono’s behaviour.
“Dr Gono on Monday hired Biti to represent him in a fraud case in which he and the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission will appear before the Constitutional Court. What is disturbing is the fact that this is happening at a time when he (Dr Gono) wants to be Zanu-PF senator for Buhera yet his trust and faith in Biti is so overwhelming,” he said.
Another official said the “party must consider the implications of giving Gono the Buhera seat when he is wining and dining with the enemy”.
“He is determined to undermine the party and its leadership, especially now after his bid to have his term as RBZ Governor extended failed. We ought to be careful with him,” he said.
But party secretary for administration Cde Didymus Mutasa, who is said to be influential in Zanu-PF Manicaland, said there was nothing wrong with Dr Gono’s decision to work with Mr Biti.
“It is his right to look for the best lawyer. If he thinks Biti is the one he wants to pick, it is up to him. Biti practices in Zimbabwe. He practices in Zimbabwean courts and not in South Africa or England. It is up to Gono to choose who he wants to defend him,” Cde Mutasa said.
But a Zanu-PF Politburo member with close ties to the Zimbabwe Defence Forces countered: “We have been told that some people in MDC-T want to besmirch the image of the military and other security servives and they think they can get help from Gono in doing this. We sincerely hope he does not go rogue.”
What is of particular interest is how the Gono-Biti relationship has mellowed. At one point Mr Biti wanted Dr Gono arrested, and today he is helping him avoid jail.
In the early days of the inclusive Government, Mr Biti vigorously on several occasions pestered Sadc to convene an Extraordinary Summit principally to remove Dr Gono and then Attorney-General Mr Johannes Tomana from office.
So bad were their relations that on May 22, 2009 Dr Gono wrote to then Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai from MDC-T to intervene.
Read part of the letter: “As you may be aware Hon Prime Minister, the strained relations between the Hon Minister of Finance and myself are a matter of public knowledge and, need I say, concern.
“For more than a year now, the minister has uttered, publicly and privately, words and statements that are not only criminally defamatory but also seriously insulting to my person, family and indeed, to the institution that I work for. His misleading statements are also career limiting in my field of finance and economics.
Dr Gono said Mr Biti “accused me of being at the epicentre of (the) Zanu-PF terror machine, an economic saboteur, terrorist and number one Al-Qaeda who deserves to be shot by a firing squad”.
After a year in the inclusive Government, Mr Biti suddenly went mum about Dr Gono.
In 2012, there were reports that Dr Gono helped Mr Tsvangirai access some US$1,5 million to get an official residence as the Prime Minister. At the same time, it is alleged Mr Biti released another US$1 million from Treasury for the same purpose.
The alleged case of double-dipping from State coffers has never been fully made public with all parties involved denying the allegations.
And last month Mr Biti told a radio station, “Gono has the nation at heart although some people wanted to use him and they indeed used him and just dumped him. We first had challenges, but eventually we had a very good working relationship. He had the nation at heart.”
Labels: COURTS, DIDYMUS MUTASA, GIDEON GONO, MDC TREASON, MUNYARADZI KEREKE, TENDAI BITI
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(NEWZIMBABWE) Zanu PF anger as Gono hires MDC-T's Biti
18/12/2013 00:00:00
by Gilbert Nyambabvu
A DECISION by former central bank governor, Gideon Gono, to hire MDC-T’s Tendai Biti for his corruption fight has left a few nickers in a twist among the Zanu PF hierarchy with some top officials questioning his loyalty to the party.
Gono’s former charge at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Munyaradzi Kekere, who is now an MP, has revived allegations that the ex-governor looted millions of dollars in public funds from the apex bank.
Kereke, last week, filed an application at the Constitutional Court which seeks to force the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) to investigate the allegations against his former boss.
Among a raft of claims, Kereke alleges that Gono, long considered a confidant and financial adviser of President Robert Mugabe, took more than US$37.5 million, R1,4 million and more than £21,500 pounds in state funds which he converted to his personal use.
According to the Zanu PF-leaning Herald newspaper, Gono has hired former finance minister and MDC-T secretary general, Tendai Biti, to represent him in the case.
Gono, who left the bank in November after being at the helm for ten years, has since been recommended to become Zanu PF’s senator in Manicaland province, replacing the late Kumbirai Kangai.
Senior party officials not named by the paper told the Zanu PF Herald that they were disturbed by Gono’s links with Biti.
“Gono on Monday hired Biti to represent him in a fraud case in which he and the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission will appear before the Constitutional Court,” said one of the officials.
“What is disturbing is the fact that this is happening at a time when he (Gono) wants to be Zanu PF senator for Buhera yet his trust and faith in Biti is so overwhelming,” he said.
Another top official said Zanu PF “must consider the implications of giving Gono the Buhera seat when he is wining and dining with the enemy”.
“He is determined to undermine the party and its leadership, especially now after his bid to have his term as RBZ Governor extended failed. We ought to be careful with him,” he said.
Equally unimpressed was a politburo member said to have “links to the military”
“We have been told that some people in MDC-T want to besmirch the image of the military and other security servives and they think they can get help from Gono in doing this. We sincerely hope he does not go rogue,” the unnamed official said.
Labels: COURTS, GIDEON GONO, MDC TREASON, MUNYARADZI KEREKE, TENDAI BITI
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(NEWZIMBABWE) Foiled at polls, ex-PM hopes economy will floor Mugabe
08/11/2013 00:00:00
by Gilbert Nyambabvu
DESPITE being beaten at the polls (which he disputes), MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai was upbeat Friday, rallying his troops with the promise that President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party may yet be toppled - by the economy. The former Prime Minister addressed supporters in Chitungwiza in what the MDC-T said was part of an ongoing “national networking” campaign.
“I want to tell you that you won the 31 July election. You did not lose it, but it is Robert Mugabe who stole the election and is causing a national crisis and I will not let you down until we achieve democratic change,” Tsvangirai said, according to a party statement.
The MDC-T chief lost the presidential vote by a landslide in the July 31 elections while Mugabe’s Zanu PF party claimed a huge majority in Parliament.
Tsvangirai however, refuses to accept the outcome, claiming the election was rigged.
The former trade union chief has fought and lost three successive elections against Mugabe but came close to toppling the veteran leader in 2008 when he won the first round of the vote before pulling out of the run-off, claiming Zanu PF henchmen had unleashed violence against his supporters.
At the time, the country’s economy was near complete collapse after a recession lasting several years with runaway inflation reaching stratospheric levels of 6.5 sextillion percent, by some estimates.
Some stability and marginal recovery was achieved with the ditching of the Zimbabwe dollar in 2009 and the establishment of a coalition administration whose fractious tenure ended with the July 31 elections.
However, the MDC-T hierarchy sees what they describe as the “crisis of legitimacy” created by the “fraudulent” election adversely impacting the still sickly economy, in a development they privately expect to play into their hands.
Said Tsvangirai Friday: “Although Zanu PF stole the election, it cannot steal the economy.”
He added that many people were losing jobs around the country as companies closed on a daily basis “because Zanu PF had created a national crisis (through the fraudulent vote) which has resulted in the declining of the country’s economy”.
The message was repeated by other top leaders in a meeting also held Friday at the party’s head office in central Harare.
Said deputy president Thokozani Khupe: “I remember on 29 July at the crossover rally held in Harare telling over 100,000 people gathered that on 1 August, the people were going to work up to news that Zimbabwe had a new President, a Vice President and a new economy that will give people food, jobs and shelter.
“But on August 1, we all woke up to a nightmare - another Zanu PF electoral theft. However, the MDC is a value driven party not a power driven party like Zanu PF that would spend millions of dollars to rig an election. While they may have rigged the election, they cannot rig the economy.”
National organising secretary Nelson Chamisa added: “Zanu PF knows it committed a serious electoral fraud. They are refusing to open the Mt Pleasant ballots because again, they are afraid to expose their fraud. We have a problem in Zimbabwe.
“Because of the fraud, they do not have an answer to the water and electricity challenges. Up to date we have no budget, the available government seed is given on a partisan basis and industries are closing. This is not the behaviour of a national government.”
Tsvangirai insisted that another debilitating economic crisis could only be avoided if “key reforms (are) put in place and the country (moves) on by holding fresh, free and fair elections.”
Labels: MDC TREASON, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, NEOLIBERALISM, THOKOZANI KHUPE
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(STICKY) (NEWZIMBABWE) MDC-T blasts Zanu PF as 2m face starvation
16/10/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
COMMENT - This is the MDC at it's treasonous, seditious best. They lie, to give Zimbabwe a negative image abroad, so they may get into power. This puppetry and sabotage is why people think twice about Western dominated 'democracy'. Democracy comes from the people, not foreign funded parties and NGOs. For the real numbers behind the numbers, read Prof. Ian Scoones article: Food crisis in Zimbabwe: 2.2 million at risk. But where do the figures come from, and what do they mean? - prof. Scoones mentions underreporting of: income, productivity in the A1 areas, concentration of on the dry south (where only 20% of the population live), livestock sales, early cropping and remittances. He also mentions the use of pre-land reform sampling frames; also 1/3 of the number may only be food insecure for a short period before the next harvest. Also check out his post "Dodgy data and missing measures: why good numbers matter (part I)". - MrK
AN MDC-T shadow minister this week blamed Zanu PF’s land reform programme and poorly-conceived agricultural policies over a national food crisis that has left up to two million people in need of food aid.
Moving a motion calling for a parliamentary committee to investigate the food crisis, the MDC-T’s shadow agriculture minister Samuel Sipepa Nkomo accused Zanu PF of reducing the country from a net exporter to a perennial food beggar.
He dismissed as deplorable plans by the government to import maize from Zambia through an “eat now pay later arrangement” saying this was evidence of failed leadership.
In September, the Rome-based World Food Programme (WFP) warned that some 2.2 million people were in need of urgent food aid.
From prof. Scoones, who predicted: "The 2.2 million figure is of course a good flag-waving number for the WFP to raise funds, and for the CFU to bash the government for the land reform (and even President Mugabe is now joining the critique of the ‘new farmers’), but the actual implications are more complex. Here are five reasons why we need to be cautious about the figures." - MrK
The United Nations agency said this was the highest number of Zimbabweans requiring food assistance since early 2009, when more than half the population relied on such aid.
Said Nkomo: “The victims of elite capture have been the ordinary villagers of Kezi and Siyachilaba who have to contend with debilitating food shortages following the dysfunctionality of a hitherto well laid out food market chain.”
Zimbabwe has suffered intermittent food shortages since 2000 when agricultural output fell after President Robert Mugabe decided to seize white-owned commercial farms to distribute to blacks.
Nkomo blamed the manner in which Zanu PF carried out the land reforms for the current food shortages.
“Though undoubtedly noble a programme, it has become apparent over the years that the Land Reform Programme was a programme not well thought out,” he said.
“But, it was a sporadic reaction to a political capital in light of the energies of the new political players in a hitherto monopolised political landscape.
“Food handouts by non-governmental organisations have been an annual feature in the country’s calendar of events.”
He said although food shortages follow some of the poorest weather conditions, the crisis was mostly man-made and worsened by the partisan distribution of food during drought and starvation mitigation programmes.
“It is indeed sad and primitive that a government can deliberately starve its own populace for purposes of political expedience,” he said.
“It is the essence of democracy to have divergent political ideologies with government having the capability to rise above party politics and provide food to all deserving and bona fide Zimbabweans.”
The government recently announced a US$1 billion scheme to support farmers with inputs ahead of the new agricultural season.
But Nkomo said the fact that farmers needed help with inputs at the start of each new farming season was evidence the programme was not working.
“It has become a common trend that the government churns out millions of dollars annually in support of farmers who,13 years after the Land Reform Programme, are still being referred to as ‘new farmers’ and are hand-held by government with no indication of self-sustaining operations in the near future,” he said.
“While government has an obligation to support farmers, the current support mechanisms are not sustainable as they are characterised by an endless cycle of one way financial and input injections which are not matched by equivalent returns.
“It does not, therefore, come as a surprise that Zimbabwe is now a basket case from its rightful position as the bread basket of Southern Africa.
“If current practices in the agricultural sector are anything to go by, Zimbabwe is poised to suffer even more food deficits in the future.”
Labels: COLOUR REVOLUTIONS, MDC, MDC PROPAGANDA, MDC TREASON, NEOLIBERALISM, SAMUEL SIPEPO NKOMO
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Motion leaves legislators close to blows
October 17, 2013
Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
A MOTION on the West’s illegal economic sanctions regime saw legislators almost trading blows yesterday, with altercations between Zanu-PF and MDC-T members lasting for about 30 minutes. The exchange of insults and threats only stopped when the Chamber got to its automatic adjournment time at 6:55pm when National Assembly Speaker Cde Jacob Mudenda announced the mandatory end of the debating time.
The altercation was triggered by Mbizo MP, Mr Settlement Chikwinya (MDC-T) who provoked Buhera South MP Cde Joseph Chinotimba (Zanu-PF)
alleging that he murdered MDC-T supporters during the harmonised elections.
This occurred during a motion moved by Mberengwa East MP, Cde Makhosini Hlongwane (Zanu-PF) calling for the National Assembly to write to Western countries to remove sanctions.
Despite admitting to the existence of sanctions in the GPA, and in spite of tacit admission by the sanctions-imposing countries that the embargoes will remain, MDC-T legislators continue denying the existence of sanctions.
The drama started when Mr Chikwinya took the floor to deny the existence of sanctions which he chose to call “restrictive measures”, he then read out names of people whom he claimed were “murdered by one Joseph Chinotimba in Buhera,” triggering a protest from Cde Chinotimba and other Zanu-PF legislators.
Cde Chinotimba charged at Mr Chikwinya pointing at him while Zanu-PF Chief Whip, Cde Joram Gumbo could be seen protesting as well, moving back and forth to the Speaker’s Chair shaking his head in anger.
The directive by Cde Mudenda ordering Mr Chikwinya to withdraw did not to help matters as Cde Chinotimba continued charging, protesting and pointing his finger at Mr Chikwinya, who on regaining the floor continued provoking Zanu-PF by making reference to violence saying he wanted to submit a document with evidence to form part of parliamentary record.
Cde Chinotimba seemed not have been satisfied by the order againt Mr Chikwinya to withdraw but wanted him to be ejected from the Chamber.
The heated exchange persisted as Zanu-PF legislators called for stern action against Mr Chikwinya while MDC-T legislators, led by Lobengula MP,Mr Sam Sipepa Nkomo protested that Cde Mudenda was not as firm to Zanu-PF MPs as he was to them.
“Parliament is not a place for criminal inquiries. Honourable Member has made some allegations that Hon Chinotimba murdered a person. If there are such issues Parliament is not the rightful place but should report to the police,” said Cde Mudenda.
After the 30-minute altercation, Cde Mudenda adjourned the House in terms of Standing Orders that provides for automatic adjournment at 6.55pm.
MDC-T Chief whip, Mr Innocent Gonese rose to protest why the House was being adjourned to next Tuesday instead of today but Cde Mudenda continued to move with his procession out of the Chamber.
Clerk of Parliament, Mr Austin Zvoma later issued a statement last night to the effect that the National Assembly had been adjourned to today and not to next Tuesday.
In his debate, Mr Hlongwane told the House that the European Union had violated the Cotonou Partnership Agreement that provided for dialogue before any measure could be taken.
Cde Hlongwane whose contribution was punctuated by emotions that drew a standing ovation from Zanu-PF MPs, and heckling from the MDC-T legislators invited the House to denounce them.
He chronicled the effects of the embargo on individuals and firms that have been affected. MDC-T legislators led by Hatfield MP, Mr Tapiwa Mashakada denied that there were sanctions, saying ‘restrictive measures’ were meted because of violence against white commercial farmers and MDC-T supporters.
Earlier on, Cde Mudenda shot down a motion by MDC-T that sought to have the July 31 2013 harmonised election investigated.
Gweru Urban MP, Mr Sessel Zvidzai had risen to give notice that he would want to move a motion to the effect that a parliamentary portfolio committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs investigate elections.
Cde Mudenda declined to allow the motion saying he wanted to study the constitutional implication of that motion. This again triggered protests from the MDC-T that lasted for about 10 minutes as legislators from the opposition party burst into song to derail business of the House.
Cde Gonese rose to protest that the motion had gone through all the requisite processes of Parliament but Cde Mudenda said as Speaker, he had the final say on the admissibility of any motion.
Labels: JOSEPH CHINOTIMBA, MDC TREASON, SANCTIONS, ZDERA
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(NEWZIMBABWE) MDC-T blasts Zanu PF as 2m face starvation
16/10/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
COMMENT - This is the MDC at it's treasonous, seditious best. They lie, to give Zimbabwe a negative image abroad, so they may get into power. This puppetry and sabotage is why people think twice about Western dominated 'democracy'. Democracy comes from the people, not foreign funded parties and NGOs. For the real numbers behind the numbers, read Prof. Ian Scoones article: Food crisis in Zimbabwe: 2.2 million at risk. But where do the figures come from, and what do they mean? - prof. Scoones mentions underreporting of: income, productivity in the A1 areas, concentration of on the dry south (where only 20% of the population live), livestock sales, early cropping and remittances. He also mentions the use of pre-land reform sampling frames; also 1/3 of the number may only be food insecure for a short period before the next harvest. Also check out his post "Dodgy data and missing measures: why good numbers matter (part I)". - MrK
AN MDC-T shadow minister this week blamed Zanu PF’s land reform programme and poorly-conceived agricultural policies over a national food crisis that has left up to two million people in need of food aid.
Moving a motion calling for a parliamentary committee to investigate the food crisis, the MDC-T’s shadow agriculture minister Samuel Sipepa Nkomo accused Zanu PF of reducing the country from a net exporter to a perennial food beggar.
He dismissed as deplorable plans by the government to import maize from Zambia through an “eat now pay later arrangement” saying this was evidence of failed leadership.
In September, the Rome-based World Food Programme (WFP) warned that some 2.2 million people were in need of urgent food aid.
From prof. Scoones, who predicted: "The 2.2 million figure is of course a good flag-waving number for the WFP to raise funds, and for the CFU to bash the government for the land reform (and even President Mugabe is now joining the critique of the ‘new farmers’), but the actual implications are more complex. Here are five reasons why we need to be cautious about the figures." - MrK
The United Nations agency said this was the highest number of Zimbabweans requiring food assistance since early 2009, when more than half the population relied on such aid.
Said Nkomo: “The victims of elite capture have been the ordinary villagers of Kezi and Siyachilaba who have to contend with debilitating food shortages following the dysfunctionality of a hitherto well laid out food market chain.”
Zimbabwe has suffered intermittent food shortages since 2000 when agricultural output fell after President Robert Mugabe decided to seize white-owned commercial farms to distribute to blacks.
Nkomo blamed the manner in which Zanu PF carried out the land reforms for the current food shortages.
“Though undoubtedly noble a programme, it has become apparent over the years that the Land Reform Programme was a programme not well thought out,” he said.
“But, it was a sporadic reaction to a political capital in light of the energies of the new political players in a hitherto monopolised political landscape.
“Food handouts by non-governmental organisations have been an annual feature in the country’s calendar of events.”
He said although food shortages follow some of the poorest weather conditions, the crisis was mostly man-made and worsened by the partisan distribution of food during drought and starvation mitigation programmes.
“It is indeed sad and primitive that a government can deliberately starve its own populace for purposes of political expedience,” he said.
“It is the essence of democracy to have divergent political ideologies with government having the capability to rise above party politics and provide food to all deserving and bona fide Zimbabweans.”
The government recently announced a US$1 billion scheme to support farmers with inputs ahead of the new agricultural season.
But Nkomo said the fact that farmers needed help with inputs at the start of each new farming season was evidence the programme was not working.
“It has become a common trend that the government churns out millions of dollars annually in support of farmers who,13 years after the Land Reform Programme, are still being referred to as ‘new farmers’ and are hand-held by government with no indication of self-sustaining operations in the near future,” he said.
“While government has an obligation to support farmers, the current support mechanisms are not sustainable as they are characterised by an endless cycle of one way financial and input injections which are not matched by equivalent returns.
“It does not, therefore, come as a surprise that Zimbabwe is now a basket case from its rightful position as the bread basket of Southern Africa.
“If current practices in the agricultural sector are anything to go by, Zimbabwe is poised to suffer even more food deficits in the future.”
Labels: COLOUR REVOLUTIONS, MDC, MDC PROPAGANDA, MDC TREASON, NEOLIBERALISM
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(TALKZIMBABWE) Tsvangirai lied about reasons for petition withdrawal
This article was written by Our reporter on 19 August, at 06 : 35 AM
MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his legal team which includes Chris Mhike and Alex Magaisa withdrew their election petition to nullify President Mugabe’s election victory after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) had submitted its evidence crushing the allegations, it has emerged.
The reasons given by the MDC-T are not true, according to the lawyers opposing the petition.
It has become clear that the MDC-T wanted to avoid an embarrassing defeat at the Constitutional Court as their evidence was flimsy and weak.
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission lawyer Charles Nyika of Kanengoni and Nyika law firm said Tsvangirai and his legal team withdrew his petition after receiving a notice of opposition to the petition by ZEC.
The notice crashed all the allegations raised in the petition which prompted the MDC-T to withdraw its petition.
“The notice of withdrawal was filed after we had just filed and served ZEC’s notice of opposition.
“The notice of opposition had an effect of destroying Mr Tsvangirai’s case because it had everything.
“We even attached the discs and other relevant evidence to dismiss the claims by Mr Tsvangirai,” said Mr Nyika.”
Nyika said Tsvangirai raised serious allegations against many people and organisations in his petition.
For that reason, he said, the MDC-T leader could not withdraw without justifying the claims.
“The withdrawal has to be formally done in court. There are serious allegations that Mr Tsvangirai raised in his petition, especially against the Judiciary. We also want to hear how he arrived at that,” he said.
According to Tsvangirai’s withdrawal affidavit, the main reason for the decision was that he had not been furnished with the election material he requested at the Electoral Court.
He also cited Chief Justice Chidyausiku’s presence at the National Heroes’ Acre where President Mugabe gave an address as a factor that could deprive him of the right to a fair hearing.
WITHDRAWAL A NULLITY
President Mugabe’s lawyer Advocate Fred Gijima says the withdrawal of an election petition by MDC-T leader is a nullity because it is not provided for in the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
Adv Gijima said today he will raise the argument in court when the parties meet in line with a directive by Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku.
He argued that in terms of the new Constitution, there is no provision for the withdrawal of a petition filed challenging the election of a President.
He said that in terms of the new Constitution, there is no provision for the withdrawal of a petition filed challenging the election of a President.
Labels: MDC, MDC TREASON, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI
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Zim begins to receive maize imported from Zambia
By Elita Chikwati in Harare, Zimbabwe
Sat 01 June 2013, 14:01 CAT
COMMENT - This is the MDC at work, putting the manipulation of the Zimbawean people before helping them.
THE 150,000 tonnes of maize imported by Zimbabwe from Zambia have started trickling in, agriculture minister Dr Joseph Made has said.
The grain was imported under a government-to-government arrangement
despite attempts by finance minister Tendai Biti, who is also MDC-T secretary general, to block the deal.
He wanted the maize to be imported by private buyers, a development that would have put the grain beyond the reach of many needy families.
This, analysts said, was part of MDC-T's plans to create conditions for protest votes, a throwback to election 2008.
Made on Thursday said priority would be given to parts of the country in desparate need of the commodity.
"Priority areas are Matabeleland South, Matabeleland North, Midlands, Masvingo and some parts of Manicaland. It is important that governors and chiefs work closely with the Grain Marketing Board to ensure the maize reaches as many families as possible."
Made said chiefs should ensure the maize is allocated to families in dire need.
"Everybody needs food but we have to prioritise the worst affected. There are some families without anything and these should be given to priority," he said.
Made urged chiefs to monitor the situation on the ground since stocks were still low.
Zimbabwe imported the maize to ease shortages caused by
last season's poor rains.
Officially launching the Food and Nutrition Policy recently, President Robert Mugabe said payment modalities for the grain would be discussed later.
He said his Zambian counterpart President Michael Sata made the pledge during a telephone conversation.
Labels: JOSEPH MADE, MAIZE, MDC TREASON, NEOLIBERALISM, TENDAI BITI, ZAMBIA, ZIMBABWE
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(HERALD ZW) MDC-T: Vote Unbridled Imperialism
Wednesday, 22 May 2013 21:13
THE MDC-T has just come up with its policy position for Election 2013, and the party has emphatically validated its long-time political tag of being an attack dog for ousted white commercial farmers and for Western capital.
“We can’t build an economy that survives on peasants. Having everyone going into farming is not sustainable. We have to remove people from the farms to the industries than removing people from the industries to the farms because I don’t see that working,” ranted Morgan Tsvangirai at a political rally three days ago.
“In order to develop an economy, there is a need to have most people employed while a few who want to get into farming can go there,” he continued.
On Zanu-PF’s popular indigenisation and economic empowerment policies that have so far resulted in the establishment of 59 community share ownership schemes brokered between multinational corporations and the communities in which they are exploiting natural resources Morgan Tsvangirai had this to say:
“We can’t talk of indigenisation without empowerment, indigenisation without empowering the broad majority is selfish and only meant for a few. I want to assure you we will review that indigenisation law so that we create an empowerment law for the majority of the people of Zimbabwe.”
The on record understanding of the concept of majority empowerment by Morgan Tsvangirai is an economic environment that absorbs most if not all Zimbabweans into an urban employment sector owned by “proven investors,” by which he refers to colonially privileged Western corporations dominating Africa’s extraction and processing industrial sector.
Describing the objective of US funding of international aid programs in a paper titled
“Exercising US Leadership: Democracy Funding in a Time of Global Change,” Congressional Affairs Manager Sarah Trister recently wrote:
“The US Congress should fully fund the Administration’s request for US$56 billion to support international affairs for Fiscal Year (FY) 2013, a two percent increase over FY 2012. This budget is one of the primary tools the United States uses to maintain leadership abroad, pursue its international priorities and promote American values.”
It is people like Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai that are targeted for this kind of funding — puppet leaders committed to compliance with this unmitigated and unbridled form of imperialism. One would have thought the blatant blundering of the MDC-T over the popular land reform program in 2000, coupled with the party’s acquired experience in governance through a five year coalition with Zanu-PF are enough factors to influence some level of maturity and policy depth on the party of Morgan Tsvangirai and his colleagues. But it looks like some people cannot learn.
It turns out that the only political script the MDC-T is alive to is the one provided by its Western funders, and the party is fool hardy fixed on this conviction to drag an entire Zimbabwean population into puppet subjugation to its Western financial masters; even trying to do so through an election that every political analyst worthy the name says the MDC-T is bound to lose.
Instead of mobilising people around their needs, the MDC is unambiguously and unequivocally trying to mobilise Zimbabweans around the needs of ousted white commercial farmers and Western investors. Selling white supremacy for votes sounds quite misplaced for a revolutionised society like Zimbabwe.
In explaining who is targeted by US imperialistic funding Sarah Trister wrote:
“As Americans display growing fatigue over costly military interventions abroad, the Obama Administration has appropriately placed greater emphasis on diplomacy and development to advance US foreign policy and national security objectives. In order to do so effectively, a robust foreign assistance budget is needed, along with carefully targeted use of available funds.”
Morgan Tsvangirai seeks to align Zimbabwe in the US grand plan of global domination (sanitised here as global leadership), and he has the unadulterated audacity to try his luck by doing so via a national election – hoping to win it in the process. The man has a knack for bravery, but this latest behaviour borders on indecent stupidity.
Tendai Biti has vowed to fight the return of the Zimbabwean dollar and the man has no plan whatsoever to work towards the restoration of a local currency. While it is given that a return of the Zimbabwe dollar must be economically strategic in its timing, it is quite another thing to adopt a policy that “unambiguously and unequivocally” fights the return of the Zimbabwe dollar. This seems to be the position of Biti, as shown by his unguided overzealousness and his notoriously loud mouth.
The current ZCTU Secretary General Japhet Moyo has publicly rebuked Biti over his reckless and ill-measured utterances that are fast becoming habitual.
Biti also says his party seeks to “democratise” the popular land reform program by “slashing farm sizes and ending multiple farm ownership.” Meanwhile his leader Morgan Tsvangirai is vowing to return the “peasants” on the farms to the cities where he wants them to be employed by white investors from the West.
The man has this inexplicable moral supremacy to publicly proclaim that in fact the resettled Zimbabwean farmers prefer employment under white investors to farming.
Africans belong to the jobs by definition. This is the colonial legacy Tsvangirai cannot grow out of.
Without addressing the how part of the policy, Biti says an MDC government would provide free education for the first 12 years of every Zimbabwean’s educational life – and that presumably includes those that prefer to have an education in private schools and colleges. The MDC-T’s approach to policy is so uncommitted and ill-thought that even dreaming works perfectly.
And the party hopes to win an election by announcing job cuts for civil servants and members of the Defence Forces in the unlikely event it wins this year’s election. Biti says his party will “rationalise” the size of the army, and downsize the civil service. The rationale for the latter is not provided, but we are told that the chance of Zimbabwe ever going to war are “nil”; so the army is a burdensome luxury that needs to be thoroughly trimmed and “confined to the barracks.”
Now Zanu-PF will simply need to scare the hell out of the soldiers and the civil servants, telling them in no uncertain terms that they risk being “rationalised” out of employment should the MDC-T ever come to power. It would be interesting to see which civil servant or soldier would prefer voting their job away.
There is a Dutch historian by the name Johan Huizinga who once wrote, “We live in a world possessed. And we know it.” This was just before Europe plunged into what history has termed World War II.
Just like the Nazis claimed to promote deep love of country and people, the MDC-T makes impressively passionate claims about democracy and people’s liberties as its core values.
Just like the patriotism of the Nazis turned demonic and destructive, the MDC-T’s path of democracy and personal liberties is becoming a haunting demon seeking to annihilate the popular needs of Zimbabweans, and quite dangerously too.
Just as Nazism accomplished the very opposite of what it sought, the MDC-T is increasingly facing a destiny of endless shame rather than national honour. It is very hard to marry a party of politicians who are corrupt by definition to any concept of democracy or personal liberty.
Just how the MDC-T continues to miss the global mood swing around Zimbabwe’s land reform program boggles the mind. There is a serious problem that always comes with donor-funded thinking, and that is the major crisis at the MDC-T, apart from the legendary mediocrity.
Fighting for “liberty and equality,” French revolutionary Maximilien Robespierre said the terror himand his colleagues were carrying out was “nothing other than prompt, severe, inflexible justice;” that is before Robespierre himself was made a victim of his own idea of justice.
It is important that our policy makers in politics abandon the path of vindictiveness when pursuing policy goals. We cannot assume an absolute love only for our people. Absolute love for one’s own people easily turns into racism, and this is what gave this world slavery, colonialism and apartheid.
Love for equality is desirable and honourable, but when we turn it into the most supreme thing, we risk breeding violence and hatred against those we perceive as privileged. We have to take great care on how we wish to deal with the rough edges and the undesirables of the otherwise noble and fairly successful land reform program; otherwise we face a real prospect of becoming hate-driven in our own conduct. Such signs are clear in the utterances of MDC-T leadership.
For all its puppetry and hopeless insidiousness the MDC-T is still a Zimbabwean political party and it is important for every patriotic Zimbabwean to consider Morgan Tsvangirai and his colleagues as simply mistaken, not evil.
Those Zimbabweans who consider Zanu-PF policies unsound must of necessity consider the party perhaps mistaken, not evil. We as Zimbabweans must come to a time when after an election we accept whoever is elected as our president, not this “Tsvangirai is my president” hysteria we often hear in between elections.
Tsvangirai is concerned that in the unlikely event that he wins this or any other election to come, the Zimbabwean army may fail to endorse him as the Commander -in-Chief. From the look of things it appears the army will not allow any situation where it will report to any person of Morgan Tsvangirai’s insidious political inclinations.
Perhaps Morgan Tsvangirai should learn to abide by the letter and spirit of the constitution his party co-sponsored with Zanu-PF for endorsement by the people of Zimbabwe recently.
In its preamble the new constitution that was assented to by President Mugabe yesterday reads:
“Exalting and extolling the brave men and women who sacrificed their lives during the Chimurenga/ Umvukela and national liberation struggles, Honouring our forebears and compatriots who toiled for the progress of our country.”
Just how does the army exalt and extol the brave men and women who sacrificed their lives for Zimbabweans to have self-determination while saluting a politician whose thinking is funded and directed by the very people at whose brutal hands these departed ones lost their dear lives?
How does the army honour our for-bearers and compatriots who toiled for the progress of our country by saluting a Tsvangirai who thinks it is a brilliant idea to send land beneficiaries back to work for white capitalists in the cities? Morgan Tsvangirai’s handlers must hand him the book “Zimbabwe Takes Back its Land,” by Professor Scoones of Sussex University – hoping the man can read.
The army’s position is not about Tsvangirai the person, but more about the core principles upon which our nation is founded. The Americans are founded on their idea of the search for freedom and liberty, as well as the notorious doctrine of American exceptionalism. We have our own foundations based on our liberation struggle legacy, and on that we stand founded.
No single politician can succeed in trivialising or overriding these co-values, Tsvangirai included. The matter of the liberation legacy and its co-values is not an election matter. It is the mother of many children, elections included. As such it cannot be tempered with or modified by the diktats of imperialism, be these in the name of American global leadership or that of the overly glorified nobilities of Western democracy.
It is important that the MDC-T reads the co-values of our foundations when the leadership goes through such pro-people policies like the land reform program and the indigenisation of the Zimbabwean economy.
These are no policies to rubbish or ridicule – and certainly no policies to even dream of reversing. The issue of who controls our land and our economy cannot be put to vote. It is defined by the aspiration of those who lost their lives so that a country by the name Zimbabwe can be on the face of this planet.
Zimbabwe we are one and together we will overcome. It is homeland or death!
Reason Wafawarova is a political writer based in SYDNEY, Australia
Labels: MDC TREASON, NEOCOLONIALISM
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(HERALD ZW) MDC-T: Vote Unbridled Imperialism
Wednesday, 22 May 2013 21:13
THE MDC-T has just come up with its policy position for Election 2013, and the party has emphatically validated its long-time political tag of being an attack dog for ousted white commercial farmers and for Western capital.
“We can’t build an economy that survives on peasants. Having everyone going into farming is not sustainable. We have to remove people from the farms to the industries than removing people from the industries to the farms because I don’t see that working,” ranted Morgan Tsvangirai at a political rally three days ago.
“In order to develop an economy, there is a need to have most people employed while a few who want to get into farming can go there,” he continued.
On Zanu-PF’s popular indigenisation and economic empowerment policies that have so far resulted in the establishment of 59 community share ownership schemes brokered between multinational corporations and the communities in which they are exploiting natural resources Morgan Tsvangirai had this to say:
“We can’t talk of indigenisation without empowerment, indigenisation without empowering the broad majority is selfish and only meant for a few. I want to assure you we will review that indigenisation law so that we create an empowerment law for the majority of the people of Zimbabwe.”
The on record understanding of the concept of majority empowerment by Morgan Tsvangirai is an economic environment that absorbs most if not all Zimbabweans into an urban employment sector owned by “proven investors,” by which he refers to colonially privileged Western corporations dominating Africa’s extraction and processing industrial sector.
Describing the objective of US funding of international aid programs in a paper titled “Exercising US Leadership: Democracy Funding in a Time of Global Change,” Congressional Affairs Manager Sarah Trister recently wrote:
“The US Congress should fully fund the Administration’s request for US$56 billion to support international affairs for Fiscal Year (FY) 2013, a two percent increase over FY 2012. This budget is one of the primary tools the United States uses to maintain leadership abroad, pursue its international priorities and promote American values.”
It is people like Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai that are targeted for this kind of funding — puppet leaders committed to compliance with this unmitigated and unbridled form of imperialism. One would have thought the blatant blundering of the MDC-T over the popular land reform program in 2000, coupled with the party’s acquired experience in governance through a five year coalition with Zanu-PF are enough factors to influence some level of maturity and policy depth on the party of Morgan Tsvangirai and his colleagues. But it looks like some people cannot learn.
It turns out that the only political script the MDC-T is alive to is the one provided by its Western funders, and the party is fool hardy fixed on this conviction to drag an entire Zimbabwean population into puppet subjugation to its Western financial masters; even trying to do so through an election that every political analyst worthy the name says the MDC-T is bound to lose.
Instead of mobilising people around their needs, the MDC is unambiguously and unequivocally trying to mobilise Zimbabweans around the needs of ousted white commercial farmers and Western investors. Selling white supremacy for votes sounds quite misplaced for a revolutionised society like Zimbabwe.
In explaining who is targeted by US imperialistic funding Sarah Trister wrote:
“As Americans display growing fatigue over costly military interventions abroad, the Obama Administration has appropriately placed greater emphasis on diplomacy and development to advance US foreign policy and national security objectives. In order to do so effectively, a robust foreign assistance budget is needed, along with carefully targeted use of available funds.”
Morgan Tsvangirai seeks to align Zimbabwe in the US grand plan of global domination (sanitised here as global leadership), and he has the unadulterated audacity to try his luck by doing so via a national election – hoping to win it in the process. The man has a knack for bravery, but this latest behaviour borders on indecent stupidity.
Tendai Biti has vowed to fight the return of the Zimbabwean dollar and the man has no plan whatsoever to work towards the restoration of a local currency. While it is given that a return of the Zimbabwe dollar must be economically strategic in its timing, it is quite another thing to adopt a policy that “unambiguously and unequivocally” fights the return of the Zimbabwe dollar. This seems to be the position of Biti, as shown by his unguided overzealousness and his notoriously loud mouth.
The current ZCTU Secretary General Japhet Moyo has publicly rebuked Biti over his reckless and ill-measured utterances that are fast becoming habitual.
Biti also says his party seeks to “democratise” the popular land reform program by “slashing farm sizes and ending multiple farm ownership.” Meanwhile his leader Morgan Tsvangirai is vowing to return the “peasants” on the farms to the cities where he wants them to be employed by white investors from the West.
The man has this inexplicable moral supremacy to publicly proclaim that in fact the resettled Zimbabwean farmers prefer employment under white investors to farming.
Africans belong to the jobs by definition. This is the colonial legacy Tsvangirai cannot grow out of.
Without addressing the how part of the policy, Biti says an MDC government would provide free education for the first 12 years of every Zimbabwean’s educational life – and that presumably includes those that prefer to have an education in private schools and colleges. The MDC-T’s approach to policy is so uncommitted and ill-thought that even dreaming works perfectly.
And the party hopes to win an election by announcing job cuts for civil servants and members of the Defence Forces in the unlikely event it wins this year’s election. Biti says his party will “rationalise” the size of the army, and downsize the civil service. The rationale for the latter is not provided, but we are told that the chance of Zimbabwe ever going to war are “nil”; so the army is a burdensome luxury that needs to be thoroughly trimmed and “confined to the barracks.”
Now Zanu-PF will simply need to scare the hell out of the soldiers and the civil servants, telling them in no uncertain terms that they risk being “rationalised” out of employment should the MDC-T ever come to power. It would be interesting to see which civil servant or soldier would prefer voting their job away.
There is a Dutch historian by the name Johan Huizinga who once wrote, “We live in a world possessed. And we know it.” This was just before Europe plunged into what history has termed World War II.
Just like the Nazis claimed to promote deep love of country and people, the MDC-T makes impressively passionate claims about democracy and people’s liberties as its core values.
Just like the patriotism of the Nazis turned demonic and destructive, the MDC-T’s path of democracy and personal liberties is becoming a haunting demon seeking to annihilate the popular needs of Zimbabweans, and quite dangerously too.
Just as Nazism accomplished the very opposite of what it sought, the MDC-T is increasingly facing a destiny of endless shame rather than national honour. It is very hard to marry a party of politicians who are corrupt by definition to any concept of democracy or personal liberty.
Just how the MDC-T continues to miss the global mood swing around Zimbabwe’s land reform program boggles the mind.
There is a serious problem that always comes with donor-funded thinking, and that is the major crisis at the MDC-T, apart from the legendary mediocrity.
Fighting for “liberty and equality,” French revolutionary Maximilien Robespierre said the terror him and his colleagues were carrying out was “nothing other than prompt, severe, inflexible justice;” that is before Robespierre himself was made a victim of his own idea of justice.
It is important that our policy makers in politics abandon the path of vindictiveness when pursuing policy goals. We cannot assume an absolute love only for our people.
Absolute love for one’s own people easily turns into racism, and this is what gave this world slavery, colonialism and apartheid.
Love for equality is desirable and honourable, but when we turn it into the most supreme thing, we risk breeding violence and hatred against those we perceive as privileged. We have to take great care on how we wish to deal with the rough edges and the undesirables of the otherwise noble and fairly successful land reform program; otherwise we face a real prospect of becoming hate-driven in our own conduct. Such signs are clear in the utterances of MDC-T leadership.
For all its puppetry and hopeless insidiousness the MDC-T is still a Zimbabwean political party and it is important for every patriotic Zimbabwean to consider Morgan Tsvangirai and his colleagues as simply mistaken, not evil.
Those Zimbabweans who consider Zanu-PF policies unsound must of necessity consider the party perhaps mistaken, not evil. We as Zimbabweans must come to a time when after an election we accept whoever is elected as our president, not this “Tsvangirai is my president” hysteria we often hear in between elections.
Tsvangirai is concerned that in the unlikely event that he wins this or any other election to come, the Zimbabwean army may fail to endorse him as the Commander -in-Chief. From the look of things it appears the army will not allow any situation where it will report to any person of Morgan Tsvangirai’s insidious political inclinations.
Perhaps Morgan Tsvangirai should learn to abide by the letter and spirit of the constitution his party co-sponsored with Zanu-PF for endorsement by the people of Zimbabwe recently.
In its preamble the new constitution that was assented to by President Mugabe yesterday reads:
“Exalting and extolling the brave men and women who sacrificed their lives during the Chimurenga/ Umvukela and national liberation struggles, Honouring our forebears and compatriots who toiled for the progress of our country.”
Just how does the army exalt and extol the brave men and women who sacrificed their lives for Zimbabweans to have self-determination while saluting a politician whose thinking is funded and directed by the very people at whose brutal hands these departed ones lost their dear lives?
How does the army honour our for-bearers and compatriots who toiled for the progress of our country by saluting a Tsvangirai who thinks it is a brilliant idea to send land beneficiaries back to work for white capitalists in the cities? Morgan Tsvangirai’s handlers must hand him the book “Zimbabwe Takes Back its Land,” by Professor Scoones of Sussex University – hoping the man can read.
The army’s position is not about Tsvangirai the person, but more about the core principles upon which our nation is founded. The Americans are founded on their idea of the search for freedom and liberty, as well as the notorious doctrine of American exceptionalism. We have our own foundations based on our liberation struggle legacy, and on that we stand founded.
No single politician can succeed in trivialising or overriding these co-values, Tsvangirai included. The matter of the liberation legacy and its co-values is not an election matter. It is the mother of many children, elections included. As such it cannot be tempered with or modified by the diktats of imperialism, be these in the name of American global leadership or that of the overly glorified nobilities of Western democracy.
It is important that the MDC-T reads the co-values of our foundations when the leadership goes through such pro-people policies like the land reform program and the indigenisation of the Zimbabwean economy.
These are no policies to rubbish or ridicule – and certainly no policies to even dream of reversing. The issue of who controls our land and our economy cannot be put to vote. It is defined by the aspiration of those who lost their lives so that a country by the name Zimbabwe can be on the face of this planet.
Zimbabwe we are one and together we will overcome. It is homeland or death!
Reason Wafawarova is a political writer based in SYDNEY, Australia
Labels: MDC, MDC TREASON, NEOCOLONIALISM, NEOLIBERALISM
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(STICKY) (SUNDAY MAIL ZW) MDC-T’s hatchet job
Sunday, 19 May 2013 00:00
Sunday Mail Reporter
The MDC-T is doing a hatchet job for the British government by calling for the security sector reforms as the former colonial master has since the attainment of independence been trying to protect white interests in the country through military action, it has emerged.
In an interview with The Sunday Mail last week, the Minister of Defence Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa put the calls by the MDC-T for security sector reforms into perspective by
revealing for the first time that the British government almost engineered a coup in Zimbabwe just before the results for the 1980 elections were announced.
Since this failed coup, the British government has never been comfortable with a strong defence system in Zimbabwe and has been using Zimbabwean professionals, academics, civic organizations and sponsoring the MDC-T to call for the security sector reforms.
The revelations by Minister Mnangagwa were confirmed in a letter that until recently was classified as Top Secret that was written to the then British Prime Minister Magaret Thatcher by the head of the defence forces under the Ian Smith regime, General Peter Walls asking for permission to stage a coup in the country when it became clear that President Mugabe was heading for a resounding victory.
Minister Mnangagwa revealed that the coup failed to take place after President Mugabe who was the then Prime Minister-designate offered Peter Walls and his lieutenants jobs in the new government.
“We were aware of the plans to stage a coup by Walls because we had infiltrated their system through blacks who were serving them tea. These blacks would pretend that they were serving them tea while listening to the coup plans. They would then give me the information as I was the head of security at that time,” said the Minister.
He revealed that at one point matters came to a head after the Rhodesians dispatched their armored vehicles into the grounds of the University of Rhodesia where Cde Mugabe and other ZANU leaders were staying.
President Mugabe had to be secretly evacuated. “Rex (Cde Solomon Mujuru) was ready for a pre-emptive strike but we discouraged him because this would create the impression that we were the aggressors.
ZANU had sneaked in enough cadres to engage the Rhodesians in the city and besides, there was a standby force of about 5 000 fighters under the leadership of Cde Zvinavashe that was waiting in Mozambique,” said Minister Mnangagwa adding that he then informed Cde Mugabe about the planned coup.
He said a plan was hatched not to neutralize the coup militarily but through the temptation of office.
The decision to offer Walls and his lieutenants jobs was kept a secret and even the late Vice President Muzenda was not informed. The PM-designate then asked Cde Mnangagwa to reach out to the Rhodesian command element and call for a secret meeting at a safe house in Quorn Avenue in Mt Pleasant.
“I contacted Ian Smith’s son, Alec who was with the moral rearmament unit. Alec referred me to Stannard a senior operative with the then central intelligence who gave me numbers of the Rhodesian command. I rang Peter Walls to convey Cde Mugabe’s wish for a meeting at 9pm of March 2 1980.
“But i also insisted that Cde Mugabe was expecting only the top four lieutenants that is Peter Walls, Peter Alum (police), Air Marshal Wessels (air force) and Ken Flower (intelligence). All of them had to come in one car. In the meantime, I planted fully armed Zanla combatants in the hedge. “As an afterthought, Cde Mugabe indicated that he wanted to meet Ian Smith before meeting the commanders. I reached Ian Smith via his son and I told him that the PM-designate wanted to meet him. I told him that the PM-designate had said he should come with one person.
Smith then said ‘what about my security?’ to which I said ‘I have never known Smith to be afraid.” Smith then indicated that he would come with David Smith,” said Minister Mnangagwa. He said the meeting was slotted for 9pm and so the meeting with the commanders was moved to 10pm.
During his meeting with Ian Smith, Cde Mugabe announced that his party had won, upon which Smith quipped “I helped you win.” President Mugabe asked how, to which Smith said “As Ian Smith I stand for the defence of white interests and I did that consistently. I, however, worked with Chirau who deserted his people, wooed with Muzorewa, worked with Ndiweni, worked with Sithole and you Mugabe you are the only one whose hands I didn’t soil. So it was easy for your people to know who really represented their interests. That’s how I helped you.”
Minister Mnangagwa said the PM-designate then told Smith that he intended to make his address and announce a policy of reconciliation.
“Cde Mugabe said it would be desirable if Smith as leader of the whites would issue a statement to calm the nerves of whites. Smith agreed and later he issued the statement.
“After the departure of Smith, the commanders came and Cde Mugabe did not wast time. He addressed Walls first indicating that on the Patriotic Front there was Rex Nhongo, Dumiso Dabengwa and Cde Lookout Masuku who, whilst accomplished guerillas, had no experience leading a conventional force. He asked Walls if he would accept an offer of overall command of the national army of the new order.
“In utter surprise, Walls looked at his fellow commanders. Without saying a word, he stood up, donned his military cap, stood at attention and saluted the PM-designate accompanied by the words ‘I accept.” After this, the PM-designate turned to Wessels and offered him the command of the Air Force and, just like Walls, he agreed and did exactly what Walls had done. Next was Alum, who also agreed.
Lastly, the PM-designate turned to Ken Flower and said ‘Ken, this is Emmerson Mnangagwa, your counterpart. As my security chief, he tells me you have been sending me many bombs, some of which are still to explode in order to kill me. This is the man who frustrated your efforts and the man you will work with if you accept to serve under me. Ken accepted the offer and we drank tea and the commanders left. The strategy worked.
“A war had been avoided, thanks to Cde Mugabe’s preference for a non-military formula,” explained Minister Mnangagwa. In his letter dated March 1 1980 to Margaret Thatcher, Walls confirmed that indeed he wanted to engineer a coup by asking the British government to declare the 1980 elections null and void if Cde Mugabe won.
He further asked for permission to “provide, if necessary, the military conditions for an orderly and safe withdrawal of those people of all races who wish to take refuge in South Africa.”
In military terms, creating military conditions means creating conditions for a coup. Since the failure of this coup, the British government has over the years tried to destabilise the country’s defence forces and in recent years efforts to weaken the forces have been doubled. A few years ago, the British government even mooted efforts to invade Zimbabwe as the land reform exercise gathered momentum.
The Blair administration sought to establish bases for the invasion in countries such as Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Mozambique and all but one country agreed to co-operate with the British. In recents months, the British administration has been using Zimbabwean professionals such as Knox Chitiyo to compile policy documents calling for the reform of the security sector. The MDC-T then adopts these documents.
“The MDC-T is trying to finish what Peter Walls started and failed to do in 1980. Unlike the commanders from the Smith regime era, our defence forces are disciplined, they are professionals and they are patriotic. The puppets won’t succeed where the master has failed since 1980,” said a military expert from the University of Zimbabwe.
Next week, we will publish details how Peter Walls later hurriedly left the country, how a whole squadron of fighter jets was destroyed by Rhodesians opposed to integration and Margaret Thatcher’s response to Peter Walls’ request to stage a coup
Labels: EMMERSON MNANGAGWA, LIBERATION, MDC, MDC TREASON, PETER WALLS, RHODESIA, UK
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(HERALD ZW) When dwarfish thieves in giant robes try to pilfer the struggle
Tuesday, 23 April 2013 22:21
Caesar Zvayi My Turn
THERE is a ruckus in South Africa over the opposition Democratic Alliance’s decision to use pictures of Nelson Mandela and Helen Suzman embracing, with the words “We played our part in opposing apartheid” on its awareness campaign pamphlet.
The DA’s attempt to put itself in the pantheon of the heroes of the struggle against apartheid has naturally angered the ANC, which said Helen Zille’s DA should not have used either of the two leaders since none were ever members of the rightwing party.
The pamphlet that identifies Suzman as ‘‘one of the founder members’’ of the DA, is one of several in the DA’s “Know your DA” campaign that has been launched as part of the build-up to next year’s general elections.
The ANC slammed the DA’s campaign as a “cynical and opportunistic exercise in propaganda”.
But the DA dug in claiming Mandela was a global icon and Suzman a member of a predecessor party of the DA.
Suzman, who was an opposition MP for 36 years, had been a member of the Progressive Party which became the Progressive Federal Party and later merged with other parties to become the DA.
The DA’s attempt to “steal’’ Mandela and Suzman was roundly slammed by the ANC which accused Zille of “deception and deceit’’ in trying to woo black voters
“This cynical and transparent attempt to rewrite history and to pretend that most of the DA’s members and leaders were not beneficiaries of apartheid but champions against that crime against humanity is dishonest and desperate,” ANC Western Cape chairman Marius Fransman fumed.
Hellen Zille
Well if they ask me, Mandela was stolen a long time ago which is why he has been turned into a virtual mascot for any westerner who wants to appear politically correct after setting foot in Africa. That is why Mandela, who was deemed a terrorist by the westerners as late as his 90th birthday, has a statue in Britain’s Trafalgar Square.
This is because from the “terrorist’’ who was put in the slammer in June 1964, to the hero who ambled out of prison in February 1994, Mandela became the typical “good African’’ during his tenure as he did not upset the apple cart.
He left office leaving South Africa virtually the same way he had found it when he began his term at Union Buildings.
Be that as it may, this week, we celebrated 33 years of independence here. Thirty-three years during which we did the unthinkable by upsetting the colonial status quo. We dismantled the economic order inherited at independence that made us virtual hewers of wood and drawers of water in our own country.
We removed those structures and replaced them with a genuine, black, wealth-creating middle class that is creating a truly Zimbabwean economy.
We had every reason to celebrate our independence as we have both the crown and the crown jewels. And because of that you will not see the MDC-T trying to steal Robert Mugabe for use on its pamphlet because he is not the archetype of ‘‘a good African’’.
You will, however, see that quisling party trying to cloth itself in nationalist robes, claiming, as Tsvangirai recently did “to be there to complete the unfinished business of the liberation struggle.’’ Really, with the excitable Chamisa quipping, “the MDC is a creature of the struggle.’’
The MDC can only be situated in the struggle to the extent that it is home to the Rhodesian agenda which is why all ex-Rhodesian security services men and women found a home in its rank and file.
Tsvangirai’s kin in the struggle would be Morrison Nyathi, who joined and deserted the struggle before selling it out. For Tsvangirai to claim to be completing the “unfinished business of the struggle’’ is to mistake Zimbabweans for a pack of fools.
MDC-T represents a return to Rhodesia, a reversal of land reforms, and indigenisation and economic empowerment. An MDC-T government would reduce Zimbabwe to a banana republic, there to serve the interests of its Western handlers.
The liberation struggle was not waged so that black Zimbabweans would remain workers on white-held farms which is what the MDC-T has been advocating. It was waged so that the soil returns to its rightful owners. The struggle was not waged so that black Zimbabweans would remain mere blue-collar workers in white-owned factories and mines like what the MDC-T’s JUICE advocates.
It was waged so that black Zimbabweans get control of the means of production, and determine their economic destiny.
No sane person would have laid down his life so that he gets food instead of a farm, a job instead of the factory, flag independence instead of total independence like what MDC-T harps about.
It is also quite laughable for the MDC-T leader to claim that independence did not come with freedoms when he not only has freedom to front a foreign sponsored party but to openly consort with the country’s enemies without comebacks.
Tsvangirai was either simply exercising his jaws or does not know what the word freedom means.
Be that as it may, isn’t it easier for the likes of Zille and Tsvangirai — mere dwarfish thieves in giant robes — to fight on the right side of history and justice instead of trying to claim what they can never be identified with?
Labels: CAESAR ZVAYI, LIBERATION, MDC, MDC TREASON
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