via Media repression threats, Zanu PF’s legitimacy crisis – The Zimbabwe Independent November 6, 2015
ZANU PF has warned the private media to stop its unwarranted attacks on the First Family. Minister of Policy Coordination and Promotion of Socio-Economic Ventures in the President’s Office Simon Khaya Moyo said he will use his powers if necessary, adding that necessary legal instruments would be invoked to rein in the private press.
Meanwhile, in another part of the country, Zanu PF is struggling to deal with real issues of the day — those of the environment.
MUCKRACKER
Lake Chivero has become severely polluted, compounded by timber poachers who have moved down to harvest the rich haul. Analysts have said the destruction is extensive.
Africa’s burden
Tampering with constitutions for personal gain continues to blight the African continent. Rwandan MPS lifted a two-term presidential limit to bolster president Paul Kagame’s bid to run for a third seven-year term in 2017.
In Congo-Brazzaville, Denis Sassou Nguesso recently changed term limits despite being in power for 31 years.
The amendments possibly grant the 71-year-old Nguesso a further seven-year mandate at an election to be held next year.
Several other presidents such as Burkina Faso’s Blaise Compaore tried the same in November last year, but violence forced him to abandon his plans to extend his 27-year rule. But why do these leaders want to die in office even when they are dismally failing to deliver on critical issues?
Ironically, one of the longest serving African presidents, Yoweri Museveni, who also in 2005 effected a constitutional amendment allowing him a third term and now serving his fourth at the age of 71, once berated the skewed dictatorial mentality as the cause for the continent’s problems.
Shortly after assuming office in 1986, Museveni wrote: “The problem of Africa in general and Uganda in particular, is not the people but leaders who want to overstay in power.”
Liability
This plague is the heavy burden Zimbabwe is carrying on its shoulders. The 2013 constitution-making process in the country accorded an old and tired President Robert Mugabe, who has become a liability, another two terms.
It’s unlikely Mugabe ever thinks of quitting power and because of his greediness, he is likely to contest in the 2108 elections.
This development leaves the country at the mercy of retrogression and further economic implosion. What should the nation expect from a leader who is now struggling for mental judgement?
Only last week he nearly tumbled in New Delhi, India. This follows his embarrassing fall at the Harare International Airport in February.
With such developments, Zimbabwe is as good as a country without a President. How can one expect him to deliver when he is struggling to walk?
At least that’s what the public sees — behind the scenes — it could be disaster.
Pretence
Not surprisingly, Zanu PF, governing the country like a monarch, sees nothing wrong in all this.
Propagandists like Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba, always ready to defend the indefensible, try to mislead subjugated citizens that Mugabe is sturdy as a fiddle.
And next month, unrelenting and clueless Zanu PF opportunists will be singing, dancing and kneeling before the First Lady Grace Mugabe (now de facto president) and her husband, pleading for a constitutional amendment that befits Mugabe the honour of life-presidency.
Does Africa require the West or the United States to convince it that democracy in form of term limits propels development?
Some leaders deserve a rest and Mugabe is one of them.
Deceptive
Zanu PF is really the master of deception and inconsistency. An interesting article in Southern Eye of October 31 quoted War Veterans minister Chris Mutsvangwa saying government was engaging foreign embassies in a bid to secure funding for post-war trauma treatment for war veterans. Mutsvangwa hoped the European Union would also include issues to do with war veterans in its programmes.
Two funny things here: First, why should government only realise the need for post-war trauma treatment 35 years after the country gained Independence?
Isn’t it that some of those who required that care are already dead, some from effects caused by war?
Second, does Zanu PF seriously need assistance from its “enemies”, who it castigates at the slightest opportunity?
Something is really wrong in this system of leadership. They seem to be taking a cue from Mugabe, who swiftly shifts policies to suit his demands.
Remember on April 22 1980, the same Mugabe who spits venom at erstwhile master Britain, was once reported in that country’s Financial Times as having said, “Yes we’ve cultivated a close relationship with Britain. I think we were never hostile with Britain as such … We see no basis for adopting an unfavourable attitude.”
Rehab
Doesn’t Zimbabwe really need the West? Mugabe knows the truth, Mutsvangwa is making gestures just as Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa, to woo them and mend relations. So why should Zanu PF shy away from reality and concede it is policy inconsistencies and governance disorders that are fuelling impoverishment.
Still on the issue of war veterans, Muckraker thinks Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association secretary-general Victor Matemadanda and his colleagues require urgent mental rehabilitation, (hence the need for immediate establishment of post-war trauma treatment centres) for erroneously believing Zimbabwe needs a leader in a wheelchair.
That must be Mutsvangwa’s maiden sensible task since his appointment to his ministerial post. (Hero basa/nanku umsebenzi).
Partisan
Political turmoil seized Hopley, in Harare South District, with Zanu PF and MDC-T supporters clashing on Sunday.
Media reports said homes and business were destroyed while several people were left injured.
Zimbabwe Republic Police finds no fault in ruling party activists and always exposes its partisan inclination by saying it is MDC-T supporters who start political fights.
“MDC-T supporters attacked Zanu PF members who were outnumbered … After the attack, Zanu PF retreated and mobilised their numbers to retaliate …,” the Herald quoted a police officer as having said.
The now orthodox discourse by the police promoting political intolerance, and appeasing Zanu PF’s terror mentality suggests to more violence will befall the electorate during 2018 election campaigns. Chances of peaceful polls remain remote.
Contradictory
Doesn’t this contradict the ruling regime’s claim during the liberation struggle when it rebuked internal settlement talks as reported by the Zimbabwe Review saying, “The Patriotic Front has made it absolutely clear that Independence must mean democratisation of the entire way of life in Zimbabwe … the instruments of state power — the army, the civil administration, the police and the judiciary — must comprise only those persons who support that way of life. This is power to the people.”
With this police attitude since the 2000 elections, backing Zanu PF as it mercilessly unleashes terror on opposition supporters, can we talk of democratisation of state security apparatus?
Arrest of Sunday Mail journalists deplorable, appalling
Muckraker welcomes the Sunday Mail editor Mabasa Sasa and two other journalists to the hostile media world in Zimbabwe after being arrested this week by the police for writing on mass killings of elephants in Hwange National Park.
It is only recently that Information minister Christopher Mushohwe summoned editors telling them the private media were culprits pushing a sinister agenda. The arrest of journalists — a strategic move by the ruling party to silence the press, is deplorable and an unwise means of stamping authority by Mugabe’s regime? How does the police rush to arrest the trio without carrying out full investigations? Do scribes in the state-controlled media now realise it is not about which stable one works for, rather it’s about the regime masking reality to perpetuate its looting spree. Doesn’t this tell us there could be Zanu PF’s sacred cows afraid of exposure? Only bootlickers survive.
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