Tofataona Mahoso had to have the last say

Disgraced Zimbabwe Media assassin Tofataona Mahoso

Zanu PF solidarity messages with under siege RBZ governor Gideon Gono and AG Johannes Tomana would not be complete if left to the youngsters.

Disgraced former chairman of the defunct Media and Information Commission, renowned for closing down media houses hostile to Mugabe and Zanu PF by any means over alleged failure to comply with stringent registration and ownership rules had to have the final say.

In his “Temporary entity parading endurance as achievement” instalment in the Sunday Mail Mahoso was at his scathing best against the MDC and Finance Minister Tendai Biti from the same party.

He was enraged that the MDC was pushing so hard for Dr Gono and Tomana’s ouster from their key positions at the Reserve Bank and Attorney General’s office respectively.
The anger had been simmering in him for some time as he is one old Zanu PF addict who has never really bought into the regime change agenda be it to another political formation of to a coalition of political formations.

And for the coalition to even discuss parity in sharing governmental responsibility was totally unacceptable for Mahoso.

“The fanatical pursuit of parity in the allocation of posts would not only be costly to the people; it would also cause the parties to treat citizens as if they are there to serve this temporary structure (musasa) called inclusive Government, instead of the IG serving the people in achieving specific tactical objectives over a short period of time.

Fanatical insistence on parity would mean that some of the parties to the IG would treat citizens of Zimbabwe as if they were created to serve the Global Political Agreement and the Memorandum of Understanding among the parties instead of these pieces of paper being treated as vehicles to enable the nation to cross a few dangerous trenches dug by the axis of illegal regime change.

Fanatical insistence on parity instead of equity in the IG would see the parties celebrating structural "balance", "inertia" and even "stalemate" as demonstrations of great innovation and achievement — when in fact what people expect is competency and speed in demining the gulf of Anglo-Saxon sanctions dividing our people so that we can dismantle this temporary structure and move on to our permanent and palatial house of stones — Great Zimbabwe!

Too much time has gone into efforts to maintain that cumbersome and fragile musasa for the IG to pay attention to the priorities of the people. The IG does not exist to serve or save itself,” growled Mahoso.

Mahoso is miffed that the Premier has twice boasted that the greatest achievement of the coalition has been its ability to survive adversity and remain intact to date.

“Why should endurance or longevity be viewed as an achievement for a temporary entity?”he grudgingly asked.

Fortunately we can answer that for him. There are not many institutions that have survived that long when Mahoso was opposed to their existence. Add to that what has happened in the past to political entities that were not favoured by the Military Chiefs and War Veterans as well as George Charamba and you will know why survival of a coalition government opposed by the same fundamentalists is on its own a major feat.

Mahoso’s next issue with the coalition government is over the Finance Ministry’s performance to date.

“Three months on, citizens of Zimbabwe have the right to ask whether or not the allocation of the Ministry of Finance to MDC-T under Finance Minister Tendai Biti was in the best interest of the people,” he bared his soul.

He threw a salvo at the Finance Minister for having launched an economic recovery plan steeped in “foregrounds and priority slogans borrowed from the neo-liberal "human rights" propaganda associated with the cynical and discredited Bush-Blair era.”

We can assume that the previous regime’s economic plans which yielded economic disaster were grounded in Pan African socialist dogma without substance and validity.

This is why Mahoso was impressed by President Robert Mugabe’s opening remarks at the same launch wherein he tried to hijack the launch as an occasion to sing the illegal and racist sanctions against Zimbabwe blues that have become the obsession of the
Zanu PF victims of the restrictions on travel to Western countries.

Mahoso complained that the recovery programme relegated the sanctions obstacle to a distant priority 14 behind political governance issues, a new constitution, good governance, rule of law and media reform which were ranked 8th in priority sections.

But then Mahoso immediately contradicted himself on the origins of the STERP economic intervention launched by Biti when he realised his next argument would be rendered meaningless if the Minister borrowed the programme from the Bush/Blair unholy alliance.

“The cogent sections of the STERP document were borrowed from previous Government of Zimbabwe plans, which means Minister Biti's real contribution were the ideological slogans.”

If STERP is well and truly a neo liberal anglo-saxon economic blueprint it cannot be modelled around previous Zanu PF socialistic models.

That is why Mahoso’s argument is without foundation and impossible to sustain. It does not make sense to claim that Finance minister Biti plagiarised Zanu PF economic models and clouded them with neo liberal anglo-saxon rhetoric.


Tendai Biti and the MDC party he represents are smarter than Mahoso thinks. They are clear in their minds that whatever sanctions were imposed on Mugabe and Zanu PF by the EU and the USA were restrictions against Zanu PF excesses which can only be lifted by imposers once the Zanu PF adherents desist from behaving in manners contrary to internationally expected norms.

No amount of protest from Zanu PF, Sadc, NAM and Au can force the EU and USA to lift the restrictive travel bans imposed on Zanu PF malcontents unless the affected take on board democratic governance and respect civil liberties of citizens.
That is why Biti stated on his return from a visit to the USA that;

"The World Bank has right now billions and billions of dollars that we have to access, but we can't access those dollars unless we have dealt with and normalised our relations with the IMF.

"We cannot normalise our relations with the IMF because of the voting power, it’s a blocking voting power of America (the US) and people who represent America on that (IMF) board cannot vote differently because of ZIDERA . . ."

The pointer he was highlighting which Mahoso completely missed was that for amicable relations between the country and the IMF to be restored there is need for Zanu PF malcontents like Mahoso to cease behaving outside the spirit and letter of the country’s laws.

But Mahoso never listens and that is why now he has been humiliated in Court by freelance journalists he wanted to levy registration, licensing and accreditation fees from notwithstanding that his MIC organisation was invalidated by the passage of Constitutional Amendment No 19 in January.

“Equally disturbing are indications that, while complaining against international financial institutions for obeying a US sanctions law which his party asked for, Minister Biti is also accused conniving with the very same institutions and donors against the national interest.”

Before dealing with the question of the disturbing connivance Mahoso raises it is pertinent to remind him that the sanctions he complaints about were never asked for by the MDC. That is a blatant and shameless lie.

What happened was that in the Zimbabwe Government barred accreditation of Commonwealth, EU and US Presidential election monitors in 2002.

The defiant EU still sent Pierre Schori heading its election monitoring mission. He was duly ridiculed by then Foreign affairs Minister who declared the EU election monitoring mission persona non grata and mocked Schori’s visit as that by a tourist rather than head of an election monitoring mission to establish the veracity of claims of unbridled violence and electoral processes manipulation by Zanu PF hoodlums.

Back to the connivance of the Finance Minister with the Anglo-Saxon neo liberals,
Mahoso alleges the Minister of inviting the former colonial masters and international donors to create “create the impression that the credit lines sealed by ZIDERA will be opened to Zimbabwe if the IG violates its own laws and releases MDC-T supporters being tried on allegations of committing serious crimes.”

It is hoped the serious crimes he alludes to are not those related to the acquittal of MDC Secretary for Defence Dr Mudzingwa and MDC Highfield constituency legislator Mr Mungofa as well Buhera East legislator and Minister of Parliamentary and Constitutional Affairs Advocate Eric Matinenga over trumped up allegations of inciting violence and causing disaffection within the military.

If not those we hope it is not the cases hanging over MDC Treasurer Roy Bennett and
other prominent Party and Civil Society Activists of involvement in banditry and insurgency recruitment and training and or bombing State infrastructure.
Surely he cannot be referring to the allegations against MDC legislators of electoral fraud.

If at all he was then it appears the cases were not as serious as they were trumped up to look given the numbers that a falling through on trial.

Mahoso is aware that the cases are nothing but political persecution of opponents by a Zanu PF party in its twilight.

That is why he quickly moved away from the subject and zeroed in on the Finance Minister’s alleged connivance with the international donor community to set up what he calls “a financial apartheid regime through a so-called Multi-Donor Trust Fund which bypasses the Cabinet and the normal treasury channels in order to finance certain ministries and projects selectively and enable MDC-T ministers and other officials to impress the population by appearing to be more effective in delivering tangible results through the discriminatory trust fund.”

Mahoso is miffed by the setting up of Multi Donor Trust Funds by a Minister who accuses the under siege RBZ governor Dr Gideon Gono of setting up similar parallel government structures within the Central bank to circumvent sanctions yet he is doing the same to circumvent the treasury.

Clearly Mahoso does not understand that the Government treasurer is the Minister of Finance and in the past the finance Ministers preferred to execute fiscal management responsibilities through the RBZ but the RBZ betrayed the trust bestowed on it when it transformed into a willing Zanu PF Party treasury as opposed to remaining a national treasury.

“But whereas Dr Gono’s principals have publicly sworn that the RBZ Governor was authorised for every project he carried out and that all projects intended to defeat illegal sanctions were authorised central government projects, Minister Biti has yet to explain what he and the donors have been up to and the Cabinet has not defended the use of that Multi-Donor Trust Fund to by-pass normal state structures,” lamented Mahoso.

It took an MDC Finance Minister’s questioning of RBZ quasi fiscal indulgences and the courageous decision to shut down the RBZ mint for former Zanu PF principals of the RBZ governor to come out in defence of the governor.

Before then they never felt it proper and obligatory to explain why they were allowing runaway inflation to subsist.

Mahoso did not find it proper to seek clarification on causes of inflation from the same principals preferring instead to peddle lies from the same principals that sanctions were responsible for inflation which is no longer sustainable after the MDC minister arrested the scourge through the simple act of shutting down the RBZ mint and liberalising trade in multi currencies.

Mahoso now claims that Zimbabweans feel that Multi Donor Trust Funds that have stabilised runaway inflation are a disguised continuation of illegal sanctions.

For obvious reasons he does not specify which Zimbabweans hold this belief for it has always been an exclusively Zanu PF held fallacy.

In addition to these fallacious concerns Mahoso is angry that the Zimbabwe Finance Minister is trying to rehabilitate discredited IMF at a time when the developed Western world is distancing itself from the antiquated global financial institution.

Where does that leave his argument that the same Minister parroted the same countries in launching STERP if all of a sudden he turns around and accuses the minister of swimming against the tide in those nations?

The stubborn fact is that the Finance Minister is more streetwise than the antiquated Mahoso whose RC factor must rank the in the upper quartile in Zimbabwe.

The most serious economic problem the Zimbabweans are facing at present is how to secure adequate cash for their day to day needs because the currencies in use are foreign. But even then the majority looks back to their current economic capacity and admit it is an unquantifiable percentage improvement to what they faced before the formation of the coalition government.

“The majority of Zimbabweans wants the Zimbabwe dollar to be remonetised or replaced by a new currency. This demand is not based on sentimentality about sovereignty.

This demand is based on practical experience and business wisdom. Very little production and manufacturing will recover without a local currency and Zimbabwe forfeits any attempts at monetary policymaking with the shelving of the Zimbabwe dollar,” bleated Mahoso.

Indeed they do but not the worthless paper they were being loaded by Dr Gono. The only reason manufacturing productivity will not improve is because of the scarcity of funding but that cannot be alleviated by flooding manufacturing entities with worthless local currency.

The reason why inflation has been falling to deflation levels during the tenure of the coalition government is because there is too little cash chasing too many goods.

The supply of imported goods from diaspora funded projects has exceeded the real demand for goods in the country although it may not have satisfied potential demand.

This is because the actual demand includes demand from people without the purchasing power and as long as the glut persists innovative entrepreneurs can manufacture for export to earn more forex for the country and improve accessibility of the scarce currencies in use at present.

The Finance Minister is closely monitoring the money supply in the country and when he is convinced that there is a reasonable spread of income to justify introduction of the re-valued Zimbabwe currency he will not hesitate to introduce that currency.
Mahoso wants the Zimbabwe dollar back because he used to enjoy unlimited access to the wards of notes from the RBZ which used to convert into valuable forex at preferential rates that were being offered Zanu PF bigwigs by Dr Gono.

STERP is a short term economic recovery programme intervention that is aimed and correcting entrenched fiscal inconsistencies that were allowed by lax fiscal management at the RBZ and when the true equilibrium position of what valuation the Zimbabwe dollar should have has been established it will then be introduced.
Before then Mahoso can bleat and whinge as much as he likes but that will not make
it economically prudent to reintroduce local currency.

“There is mounting suspicion that the rushed announcement was yet another ploy to settle scores with the RBZ Governor, since it is the RBZ which is empowered to mint and regulate currency,”Mahoso usefully disclosed to which we can only add within Zanu PF circles.

“Most damaging to the finance minister are allegations contained in the RBZ Governor's letter to Prime Minister Tsvangirai which appeared in the Zimbabwe Independent of May 23 2009,” claimed Mahoso.

Since when has government business been discussed through privately owned media houses which Mahoso did everything in his power to shut down as MIC chairman?
Since when has this loathed source of concocted stories become invaluable and reliable sources of information for Mahoso?

Mahoso knows the letter was never delivered to the Premier officially but still relies on it to advance lies contained therein that the standoff between the Finance Minister and the RBZ governor is motivated by personal interests than national service and or professional considerations.

Mahoso goes to town quoting from a letter that never was to make his point and in the process divulges what we all suspected that the letter was a political smear campaign from Zanu PF intended to cast aspersions on the suitability of Biti as Finance Minister that Mahoso crystalises.

Not so long ago professor Jonathan Moyo wrote expressing similar misgivings about Biti’s suitability for the Finance Ministry and the published letter in question which never reached its destination was written by Dr Gono in collusion with the
Professor and George Charamba according to my findings.

Be that as it may the allegations therein are ludicrous and of no consequence.
The crime of externalisation of forex is only a crime in Zimbabwe created by Gono,Moyo, Charamba and Tomana.

If pursued logically the very authors of the criminal statute will be the first ones to be found in breach of every facet of the law on externalisation as they have been paying forex for transactions when they were not exporters of any known products to earn such currencies.

Notwithstanding that the real reason why it was thrown in was to justify the suitability of Toamana as AG which he is not .

“Taken together, the issues raised here put the suitability and competence of Minister Biti in uestion in ethical as well as technical-professional terms.


The minister would help the IG and the nation if he were to resign quietly. That is what normally happens in most democratic countries when so many questions arise about the suitability of one incumbent,” concluded Mahoso.

It appears resignation for alleged incompetence is a must in a coalition government but not in MIC where Mahoso has caused havoc through political vindictiveness against innocent media houses whose only crime was to write widely held concerns about the competencies within the successive Zanu PF so called democratic governments.

Not even when he has been convicted of illegally extending his tenure of office in a constitutionally invalidated MIC must he resign but instead appeal against a hopeless situation.

That is democracy in Mahoso’s antiquated definition. We disagree. If there is anyone who must let go it is Mahoso and the cronies he has stuck his neck for and not the elected Finance Minister whose stance against excesses at the RBZ has unqualified support from those of us who elected him.

Second sidekick growl “Bishop” Trevor Manhanga

The self annointed Zanu PF Bishop Trevor Manhanga

Trevor Manhanga has for long vowed to die supporting Zanu PF and Mugabe in particular.

The howling in state media over sanctions Dr Gono and Johannes Tomana would not be meaningful if it did not get endorsements from the men of cloth.

It had to be either Kunonga or Msindo or Wutaunashe or Manhanga or all of them.
Trevor Manhanga stood up to the plate. First at the funeral of Gideon Gono’s elder brother and later through an article posted on the Zimbabwe Guardian website that many in the Diaspora refer to as the Diaspora Zimbabwe Herald.

After eulogising the virtues of the signing of the 15 September 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) between Zanu PF and the MDC without any reference whatsoever to the fact that the agreement supplanted the electoral wishes of Zimbabweans by accommodating electoral losers in a violently imposed coalition government with critical powers they were denied the right to exercise by the electorate Manhanga went on to single out the National Healing objective of the coalition as the most critical of all its objectives.

Subscribers to the GPA committed the feuding political formations to come together in a coalition government with the interim objectives of achieving;
Humanitarian assistance;
National healing and reconciliation;
Economic stabilisation and
Democratisation of the country.

Trevor Manhanga understands these objects to be;
Constitutional reform,
National healing and reconciliation and
Economic revival.

The obvious disparity between what was agreed upon and what Manhanga believes was agreed upon aside, in his opinion, Manhanga believes the objective of national healing and reconciliation is the most critical of the four.

“However – again, in my opinion - chief among the three objectives would be national healing and reconciliation, for the other two processes are incapable of realisation in the absence of a conducive atmosphere which would be ushered in through the national healing and reconciliation process,” he bleated.

All because National healing and reconciliation encompasses the transformation of everything else and recent events in the nation around the positions of the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Attorney-General are a cause for grave concern for him.

The disputed appointments “are now threatening to tear at its seams the very fabric of the GPA, and in doing so plunge the nation into an unprecedented and cataclysmic catastrophe,” said Manhanga

Because of the threat Manhanga wants political leadership in government to “desist from fence-sitting and DO something.”

“Put simply: our leaders must take charge, lest the situation deteriorates and begins to build a momentum of its own. Our inclusive Government, from the Executive to the Legislative branches, cannot sit idly by while the current situation continues to unfold. They must take action and exhibit initiative — that is what we expect of our leaders,” he implored them.

“It is my conviction that the Organ on National Healing and Reconciliation must, without fail, step up to the plate and provide leadership on this issue that threatens to tear us apart when we should be moving away from the suspicion, acrimony, division and hatred that defined our relationships as Zimbabweans in the past, to the unity, cohesion and mutual respect for one another that should define our collective future.”

“The current toxic environment where certain sections of our nation have become inebriated with the "Gono must go" chorus is not conducive for the nation to move forward and to deal with the real issues that we need to deal with.”

“The sad reality of this most unfortunate episode is that the real issue is not the removal of RBZ Governor Dr Gono, and the AG Mr Johannes Tomana.

To the discerning eye it is clear that we are faced with a well-scripted hymn here, which has a predetermined final stanza.

The first verse of this hymn is the now well-rehearsed line "Gono must go".
The second stanza resonates with the line "Tomana must go".

While the public in general have not yet seen the rest of the hymn it must be clear to the discerning eye that the next verses build on the first two and will declare that "Chihuri must go….Bonyongwe must go…..Shiri must go….Sibanda must go….Zimondi must go…Chiwenga must go".

Now, let us not be in any doubt that the final verse of this well-orchestrated and rehearsed hymn will culminate with the line "Mugabe must go!"

That is exactly the point that was made in the March 2008 harmonised elections Bishop Manhanga. Why should these people who have been at the helm for decades without achieving meaningful progress for our nation be allowed the privilege of lifetime terms of office as if the country is short of fresh idealists to move the country forward?

“The tragedy of all this is that the script is being written and orchestrated from outside our borders, with our internal players simply reading from the script and making sure the correct notes are being played. It is now crystal clear that Dr Gono is the fall guy but the real target is President Mugabe, who certain sections of the international community cannot bear to see still as Head of State and Government of Zimbabwe.”

Nothing can be further from the truth than this myopic statement from Manhanga. How many foreigners voted in the March elections where Mugabe lost to Tsvangirai? Not a single one.

Why should Gono be the fall guy when Mugabe was felled in the elections but refused to accept the verdict using Gono and the military to prop up his undesired stay in office? If Gono and the Military commanders are the bases upon which Mugabe refuses to listen to the electorate how can they be fall guys when they are in charge?

The call for the termination of Gono and Tomana’s appointments is not premised solely on them being impediments to the flow of desperately needed foreign aid to reconstruct the battered economy but because they were made in contravention of the GPA in that the appointments were not discussed by the agreement signatories but were unilaterally made by the Zanu PF signatory.

National Healing and reconciliation cannot be achieved through blatant breaches of signed agreements. On the contrary it is respect of agreements that will enhance mutual trust among Zimbabweans and thus feed into reconciliation and ultimately national healing.

“This is in direct contrast to the "Zimbabwe the people of Zimbabwe Want", a process they started with the signing of the GPA,” bleated Manhanga.

But the GPA did not start the process of the Zimbabwe we want but rather was a step back from the Zimbabwe we want. The Zimbabwe we want is one that is ruled by those with the consent of Zimbabweans to rule not those imposed by SADC and AU foreigners.

The only people who see the GPA coalition Government are Zimbabweans who voted for a Presidential candidate who won but was militantly denied the right to exercise presidential powers and ultimately was forced to satsifice for the Premiership which position is being frustrated by an imposed President and his hoodlums who include “Bishop” Trevor Manhanga.

If there are any foreigners sympathetic to the deprived electorate they can’t be faulted.

“Should the authors and supporters of the script I have alluded to above succeed we can kiss goodbye to the National Healing and Reconciliation, the bedrock on which the turnaround we all desire is to be built upon,” declared Manhanga.

But healing can only be induced by appropriate therapy. How can only the people Dr Gono reduced to paupers be healed when they see him firmly ensconced in the position that wiped their lifetime savings to nothing?

How can all the people persecuted by Tomana and vandalised by Zanu PF militia including the police and army heal when the very commanders who ordered their subordinates to vandalise them are firmly ensconced in their former positions with the same powers to order recurrence of past impunity?

If reconciliation and national healing is interpreted to mean the deprived must not seek restitution then such healing will not be genuine.

“When our memory of the past is greater that our vision of the future we are in deep trouble.”

That is exactly why we are in the economic quandary we are in. Zanu PF’s memory of past glories in reclaiming the country from colonists is greater than the vision it has for our future. That is why its loyalists think the impunity of the past decade must be wiped off the slate of our history by living the perpetrators in chief firmly in positions they can abuse in similar fashion in the future in the “true” sense of the Zanu PF reconciliation script.

“No one, no matter how powerful, militarily or economically should try and impose their will on us.”

Indeed and nobody wishes to do so. It’s a figment of the imagination of a political mind frame steeped in past misgivings which is driving Zanu PF paranoia.

“We must, with one voice, speak against the setting up of parallel financial or any other structures where these donor nations want to channel their funds and resources.”

Indeed but we are being failed by Manhanga and company who when a donor states intention to help but expresses misgivings about the trustworthiness of a fiduciary gatekeeper with a proven history of stealing from individual accounts to support a political project of a particular party, demand parliamentary resolutions barring such aid if the thief is not involved in managing the funds.

“There are certain things that are non-negotiable and our independence and sovereignty is one of them,” declared Manhanga.

Haven’t we heard that before from politicians and not men of the cloth? But then Manhanga has never been a true religious leader but a politician disguised as a church leader.

Multi Donor Trust Funds were set up to ensure the humanitarian assistance project moves forward without donor funds falling prey to the thieving RBZ governor.

Dr Gono and Johannes Tomana are not by any stretch of imagination symbols of sovereignty and their tenure or non tenure of any office does not compromise national sovereignty. If anything their past actions are a scourge on national ethos and the sooner they are removed from the limelight the better the chances our country has on improving its soiled international image.

“It is a great tragedy and travesty of justice that we have allowed corruption, ineptitude and downright greed from preventing us from fully exploiting and utilising our vast mineral and other resources.”

And that tragedy cannot be corrected by retaining trust in failed leaders.

“The continued goings-on at the Chiadzwa diamond fields cry out for resolution and one wonders why we don’t seem to be putting in place a permanent solution to fully utilise this national treasure.

These diamonds could go a long way in solving the current economic woes.”
Indeed they could if only the law enforcement chiefs are made accountable to government and not vice versa.

They are now busy shooting each other for the loot and do not want anyone other than themselves to be in charge of the deposits.

Should we not call for them to go and be replaced by loyal Zimbabweans then?

The sidekicks’ growl show

Zanu PF sidekick of the first order of merit Reason Panganayi Wafawarova

When the howling in the State media starts and gets louder the expectation is for the sidekicks outside the institution of the State media to add value with growls from across the globe with their tails firmly tucked between their feet.

Former Zanu PF militia (Green Bombers) trainer now ensconced in Australia and watching the show from the sidelines growled “The revolution will not allow itself to be hijacked.”

“If those in Government and in the leadership of political parties will choose not to support the land reform revolution or to fight it, then the revolution will have no option but to defend itself,” he pontificated.

He was obviously referring to the intervention in the Gono/Tomana saga playing out in the coalition government by military chiefs spokesman Air Vice Marshall Muchena wherein he had declared that the military was firmly behind Dr Gono’s continued disputed tenure as RBZ governor and prepared to defend it militantly if need be.
“In this vein, those after Dr Gono's demise and Mr. Tomana's removal must be reminded that the revolution will not falter because of the elimination of two of its members,” Wafawarova declared with unmistakeable confidence.

“The real outstanding issues in this GPA and its subsequent inclusive Government are issues of governance, service delivery, employment creation, reviving industry, commerce, education, health, agriculture and bringing happiness to the people of Zimbabwe,” he chuckled further.

“Those who think Dr Gono and Mr. Tomana are the outstanding issues are a mockery to the hopes and aspirations that characterised the formation of this inclusive Government.

Is it not easier to draft a desired code of conduct for these two officials and then make sure that this code is adhered to instead of simply reducing a whole Government structure to two men?”

Three days before the 29 March 2008 harmonised elections where sitting President was walloped by Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC but refused to accept the electoral verdict Wafawarova wrote an article in which he questioned “who are enemies of the people?”
In that article Wafawarova did not hint that the election was over issues of governance, service delivery, employment creation, reviving commerce, education, health, agriculture and bringing happiness to the people of Zimbabwe which he now says are outstanding resolution by the coalition government.

Back then he argued the election was about uprooting enemies of the State whom he laboriously endeavoured to expose.

“IF one were to rely on what is said by Zimbabwean opposition politicians at political rallies, Press conferences and to Western media, there is every reason to forgive that person if they concluded that President Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party are the enemies of the people of Zimbabwe,” said Wafawarova then and added.

“One also gets the impression that the opposition, particularly the MDC, is just an unfortunate bunch of well meaning and blameless advocates for democracy at the mercy of a ruthless dictatorship. The MDC is hardly ever presented as that obnoxious party of intolerant goons that believe more in violent street marches than reason.”

Wafawarova argued then that Robert Gabriel Mugabe who was a co-leader of his people alongside the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo at the Lancaster House conference notwithstanding having languished behind Rhodesian prison walls for 11 years for the country’s liberation from British colonial rule.

For that reason alone, Wafawarova agued a Mugabe who enunciated the policy of reconciliation with his colonial adversaries in 1980 after witnessing the “heartless butchers of Nyadzonia and Chimoio in Mozambique “could not logically turn out “into the monster being created out of President Mugabe by the Western rulers through their lackeys in the Western media and their surrogates in the opposition MDC and to a lesser extent through the renegade Simba Makoni.”

Coupled to that, Wafawarova exonerated Mugabe of any wrongdoing because in his first decade as Zimbabwe’s ruler Mugabe had channelled “75% of the fiscus towards social projects meant to directly benefit his people an enemy of those same people,” which of course was a blatant exaggeration of facts.

According to Wafawarova the major stain in saintly President Mugabe’s revolutionary life that he has to regret must be his government’s foolishness in adopting the IMF’s Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP).

“The belt-tightening process meant that the civil service had to be downsized, something Morgan Tsvangirai and Simba Makoni are promising to do if elected in this election. There are of course no contingent measures for those to be retrenched, as there were none when many were retrenched in the early nineties. The IMF also ordered that essential services like power supplies, public transport, education and communication be privatised with new job evaluations sidelining thousands of workers,” Wafawarova stated.

He unbelievably said by the time government abandoned ESAP in 1995 average life expectancy in the country had fallen from 62 years to 46.

“We are supposed to live in a naïve world where a Mugabe government allowing the ruinous effect of IMF policies on its people is praised as progressive and another Mugabe government is being ruthlessly punished through sanctions for abandoning IMF’s ESAP as well as engaging on a people oriented agrarian reform programme,” said Wafawarova in exonerating Mugabe and convicting the imperialists and their MDC surrogates as enemies of the State.

“Morgan Tsvangirai was ordered to embark on all manner of missions, from threatening violent removal of the sitting government, organising futile and abortive mass actions to openly calling for sanctions from everyone and the idea was to isolate Zimbabwe until the "return of the rule of (imperialist) law." For his trouble Morgan Tsvangirai got himself isolation from Africa, particularly from Sadc and of course he found himself brushing with the real law of Zimbabwe on a few occasions — needless to say, always coming second best,” bragged Wafawarova.

He then went on to ask the questions he believed the electorate will use to choose the president in the March 2008 election. Nothing can replace reproduction of those questions to show why the issues Wafawarova now says are outstanding for the inclusive government are not at all the real issues but rather a discordant political volte face on the part of the Zanu PF sidekick.

“Now who are the enemies of the people? Is it those who call for sanctions and then go ahead to dangle rescue packages in exchange for votes or is it those who stand by the people in empowering the masses at the expense of imperialist vultures?

Who is the enemy of the people? Is it the long suffering Mugabe who has given so much documented sacrifice and commitment for his country or Morgan Tsvangirai, a man who ignored the call to fight for his own country during the armed struggle only to turn up as a willing agent for imperialism in the fight against the gains of the very independence brought about by the war that Tsvangirai despised and ignored in his youthful days?

Who are the enemies of the people? Is it the war veterans seeking to defend the nationalism, freedom, sovereignty and independence for which they sacrificed lives and limbs or the Western sponsored associations and civic organisations coming to the Zimbabwean people in the name of good governance and human rights?

Who is the enemy of the people? Is it President Mugabe, who has embarked on a ten-phase agricultural mechanisation programme or Simba Makoni who scoffs at the idea and promises those sitting on repossessed land a "gnashing of teeth?"

Who are the enemies of the people? Is it those who want to make sure that the country takes itself out of the current suffering through a successful agricultural tenure and through indigenous economic policies or those who are surrendering and eying the economic packages that come with a restoration of the old imperial set up of the pre-2000 era?

Who is the enemy of the people? Is it this writer who writes in defence of a people’s revolution or any of those other writers pre-occupying themselves with writing perfidious and slanderous pieces solely based on their sense of imagination and their irrational hatred for President Mugabe?

The people of Zimbabwe are clear of where they are coming from and where they are going, even in the wake of all this suffering.

The election on the 29th of March is just but an opportunity for the masses of Zimbabwe to show the world who exactly is the enemy of the people. They showed the world who this enemy was in 2000, in 2002 and in 2005 – each time the enemy refusing the tag and crying aloud that Zanu-PF and Cde Mugabe were electoral thieves.

It seems this time they have not bothered to wait to do their crying after the announcement of the election result.

Morgan Tsvangirai has already unwittingly conceded defeat by announcing that he is busy preparing for a fight after the election instead of psyching up his team for governance — something anyone with a hope to win the elections would be doing. May be Tsvangirai does not want a repeat of the 2002 embarrassment when some people within the MDC fought for diplomatic postings that were supposed to come through a government that never was.

It is this writer’s wish to make an appeal for tranquillity and peace during and after the election because no amount of threats or rebellion will ever get anyone to rule Zimbabwe. This is a very special country with a special people — a country whose history will show anyone that external meddling is but a futile exercise. Not even the mighty United States can establish their will on Zimbabwe and that position will not change. The US and her Western allies can do absolutely nothing about it.

The only Zimbabwe that can be ungovernable is one presided over by imperialist stooges and that message has already been sent out loud and clear and the people are ready. After the people have spoken on 29 March, the voice of the majority has to be respected and Morgan Tsvangirai is behaving in an extremely dangerous manner by trying to pre-empt the will of the people in his bizarre claims for a victory ahead of an election.

Tsvangirai seems to think that he is so invincible that the only way he can lose an election is through some rigging process — that despite the fact that he has lost the vote in his own MDC on more than one occasion. He lost the vote on the Senate issue in 2005 and he lost it on the Matibenga issue in 2007. One wonders what makes Morgan Tsvangirai think that he has to win the national vote when he struggles to be supported within his own party.”

It is not surprising that now the Zanu PF sidekick thinks the very issues that were top of the MDC election agenda are the outstanding issues and not the annihilation of the enemies of the people he campaigned for before the March elections.

The reason why Gono and Tomana must make way for progress is not because they are door keepers of any revolution no nut because they are impediments to the country’s reintegration within the global village which will increase the chances of the economic turnaround of the country after the decade long onslaught anchored by the duo in support of Zanu PF has failed and collapsed beyond resuscitation.

Only then will it be possible to address the pertinent issues affecting the quality of life of ordinary Zimbabweans without international fears that any help rendered will not reach its destination after the duo diverts it midstream to Zanu PF bigwigs’ benefit.

The land is the economy and the economy is the land

When protection of the leader becomes an obsession economic progress is stagnated

Funny Mushava whose father was a respected Mbare Musika grocer, medical assistant at the Dr Wolfson surgery in Cameroon Street and Beatrice commercial farmer who bought his farm in the early eighties is the preferred authority on the Zanu PF land empowerment or is it disempowerment mantra.

His instalment titled “Cabinet, give an ear to farmers” with the favourite Zanu PF campaign theme in an apparent slur of the Finance Minister from the MDC for his failure to do what Dr Gono had done over the past five years for the benefit of the Zanu PF unproductive free commercial farm beneficiaries.

The cynicism in the article was there from the outset.

“I hate winter because the nights are long and there is not much one can do when it is cold other than snuggle up and light up a fire. At the moment this may not be possible because where I live, electricity is like Christmas. It only comes once a year. To make it worse, there is no firewood and when I get it, it is damn expensive. So that is why I love summer and the sunshine. That is me — a layman,” proclaimed Mushava in his mouth-watering opening remarks.

Since when has it dawned on Zanu PF propagandists that the government must be chided for failing to deliver heating energy to their homes? Our experience has been basic services outages for a decade while Mushava and company were busy agitating for government’s chaotic invasion of commercial farmlands and forests where woodlands were reduced to deserts by the new firewood farmers.

No wonder firewood is now scarce and expensive. The forests were razed down by the firewood farmers that Funny Mushava (no pun intended) and the State Media crew played a crucial role in supporting and urging on.

Now that the fruits of the ill conceived invasions have caught up with Mushava if at all, he wants to blame it on the coalition government because the bankrupted Energy Ministry has been assigned an MDC Minister who must be exposed in bad light to the electorate.

But back to the substance of Mushava’s timely intervention at a time when there is heated debate on the continued incumbency of Dr Gono and Johannes Tomana at the RBZ and AG’s office.

“I am amazed at the casual attitude of the Government. I say casual because I have yet to see a commitment, other than the usual talking, to a proper plan for the 2009/2010 agricultural season. Already we are told that there is a serious bread shortage looming due to the fact that not many farmers have gone for wheat this winter.

Government had set a target of 100 000 tonnes of wheat this winter. We would be lucky if we get a tenth of this due to a number of reasons,” he went straight to the point and added.

“Farming costs money. Right now not many people have spare money to engage in extensive farming.

I have watched year in and year out, the country’s grain silos being emptied to a level where they are now just shells. This is a country which in the 1980s had plenty of maize, enough to feed itself and the region. That is why at the formation of Sadc, Zimbabwe was given the portfolio of feeding the region.

Due to a number of reasons already documented by political analysts, activists and detractors and so on, Zimbabwe has turned from the breadbasket of the region to a basket case of the region.”

Nothing odd about the line of thinking and its purport except that if the government winter wheat production target has been set at 100 000 tonnes as disclosed by Mushava, it must have a basis upon which it was agreed to be an attainable objective which is being held back by either Mushava or the State for unknown reasons.

Secondly, why has Mushava been watching with folded hands over the years when agricultural output dwindled to nothing only to come out of his shell at this juncture when the situation is beyond redemption?

Could it be possible that it has only dawned upon Mushava that farming costs money now that uasi-fiscal donations from Dr Gono have dried up?

“Zimbabwe’s economy has always relied on agriculture, notably on tobacco, cotton and maize. It has been said that if the agricultural sector sneezes, the country’s economy will catch a cold. That is how important agriculture is to Zimbabwe,” Mushava reminded us and we must agree.

“Unfortunately, agriculture is not being taken seriously, hence the constant food shortages. It is time the Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, Dr Joseph Made, came to the party. He has been in this portfolio long enough to know what needs to be done.

He is the one holding the reins and the best we can do is give him advice and our support for no one wants to go back to the days of eating wild fruits,” he pleaded.

Mushava usefully pointed out that in addition to the docile Minister of Agriculture, Ministers of Finance, Mr Tendai Biti; Lands and Rural Resettlement, Dr Herbert Murerwa; Water Resources and Development, Mr Samuel Sipepa Nkomo; Environment and Natural Resources Management, Mr Francis Nhema; Energy and Power Development, Engineer Elias Mudzuri; Science and Technology Professor Heneri Dzinotyiweyi and Labour and Social Welfare, Ms Paurina Mpariwa must wise up to the agricultural deficit challenge that is looming.

It is the how part of his suggestion that raises eyebrows.

“I beg to differ with economists who say market forces should determine the producer price of maize and wheat at the moment. My advice is that the Government, through the Ministry of Finance and Agriculture, should offer a producer price that is above that of the market. It should entice people to sell their produce so that it can store the grains.

Yes, it will make a loss in the short term, but this move will become a double-edged sword in the long run. It will fill up our silos thereby ensuring food security and ultimately the Government will not import in times of drought, as there will be enough in reserve,” he pontificated.

Alluding to the prosperous 1980’s when the country was the breadbasket of SADC as opposed to the basket case it now has become in the region Mushava attributed the agricultural successes to the sterling efforts of then Agriculture Minister Moven Mahachi, who listened to farmers’ problems and presented them well in Cabinet.

By deduction it must then mean the failure in the past decade must be attributed to current Minister Dr Joseph made who does not care what the farmers think but is obsessed with urging land invaders to loot and pillage commercial farms and then reward them with farm inputs and implements which are never put to good use other than sold for a song to the few serious farmers still remaining in the country who after a season’s success are haunted out of the harvest.

But it is the suggestion on how government should go about fixing pre-season producer prices that raises eyebrows.

Mushava suggests that market forces must be ignored in fixing pre-planting producer prices. Mushava implores the Minister of Finance to release funds that enable the Agriculture Minister to pay farmers above market producer prices to stimulate agricultural productivity and fill up the silos that were emptied in the past decade even if it leaves the fiscus saddled with a debilitating debt.

He argues that the filled silos will guarantee the debt in the long term at the same time the abundance of cereal reserves will enable the Finance Ministry to regulate production levels by reducing and or holding producer prices where adequacy has been reached.

Such a pricing model he argues would in the long run allow farming organisations to divest into cash cropping when cereal production is considered less profitable in a particular season and the void they leave would be filled by communal farmers who mainly grow for personal consumption and dispose of excesses at whatever price they can fetch for other necessities of life.

The argument is for a pricing policy that influences planting decisions of the producers rather than the one that takes cognisance of available supplies and competitive to attract adequate stocks.

He points out that for the current crop the GMB is offering US$265 per tonne payable at some indeterminate future date if at all I must add. Because of that uncertainty on when the producer would be paid some entrepreneurs have moved in to mop up the produce ahead of the GMB at US$180/tonne which the farmers are gladly accepting.

Mushava still argues that the US$265/tonne offered by the GMB is not adequate to offset producer debts incurred by farmers when they sourced growing funds from the expensive black market and in any event the false sense of food security offered by imported cereals is short-lived and expensive when consideration is given to the dire need of forex in the country.

That is why he believes a loss making pre-planting producer price would attract adequate stock levels that will guarantee long term food sufficiency at a cheaper price if the government agrees to subsidise producers now rather than import later.

It appears the time value of money concept is lost to Mushava and his faith in subsidised farming models is misplaced.

Most farmers produced using cheaply sourced and or freely obtained inputs from RBZ quasi-fiscal indulgences in the previous season and nothing short of unstrained producers’ greed would justify the claim to higher prices on the basis of having sourced inputs from the black market.

The only reason GMB is offering the US$265/tonne is because it does not have cash to pay producers on the spot otherwise it could be attracting deliveries at the US$180/tonne offered by its competitors.

The US$ 85 premium offered by the GMB is to cover for delays in payment and transportation costs which are not attendant in competitor offers to producers and the farmers are taking up the lesser because for them a bird in hand is worth a dozen in the forest.

The suggestion for the Government to subsidise the farmers and consumers is an attempt to draw out the Finance Minister and commit the treasury into a debt crisis it is ill equipped to sustain and manage so that at election time Zanu PF will blame the MDC for the subsidy policy that did not work.

Alternatively the idea is to try and perpetuate the feeling that the MDC is not favourable to economic empowerment through land ownership as evidenced by its failure to subsidise farmers.

Either way the suggestion is a political initiative as opposed to a genuine economic concern from Zanu PF.

The surest way for government to restore agricultural productivity is not through monetary incentivisation but rather through restoration of order on commercial farms, issuance of land title deeds to farmers which they can use as collateral to borrow production inputs financing and carry the risk of losing the land should they fail to service loans through abuse of borrowed funds as happened with RBZ quasi fiscal donations.

Farming is a productive venture which must impose risks on the entrepreneur’s shoulders and not the State.

True failed agricultural productivity impacts negatively on the government of the day from a hungry electorate but that is the case with any economic activity in the country that fails.

The government must provide an enabling environment for farmers to carry out their business with the least of interference from political impunity ahead of any thought of subsidies.

By issuing title to farmers the government will have satisfied no less than 60% of its obligation to farmers and the balance 40% will include consistent energy supplies, availability of farming inputs in retail outlets, attractive producer prices linked to supply and demand.

Government must depend on its committed farmers for popularity and survival and not the other way round.

The Huni echo

Sunday Mail Political Editor Munyaradzi Huni echoed Herald counterpart Caesar Zvayi Pic courtsey www.zimdaily.com



THE political howling from the Zanu PF propagandists would not be complete without the familiar voices of the Sunday Mail duo being added to the discordant sanctions mantra.

Munyaradzi Huni who shares the ignominy of State journalists on the EU travel restrictions with the distraught Zvayi because of their involvement in promoting hate speech had to chip in on the subject so close to his heart and personal circumstances.

Disguised under the header “The Politics of aid,” Huni went to town lecturing the MDC government on the pros and cons of reliance on donor funding. The coalition government is in Huni’s world an MDC interim government of beggars rather than a government in which his beloved Zanu PF is key component.
For Huni the trendy politics of the day is announcement of aid packages for Zimbabwe by the international donor community when it should really be the most loathed development in any sovereign state.

Unlike his counterpart at the Herald who would like us to believe that most aid currently sustaining the country is coming from Sadc, Huni acknowledges that aid is coming from the loathed Westerners by picking the example of the US$10 million donation by Norwegian Minister of Environment and International Development, Mr. Erik Solheim.

He however took issue with the Minister’s prescription of the United Nations, the World Bank and some unnamed non-governmental organisations as the fund managers.
“President Mugabe has on many occasions said the country welcomes aid that has no strings attached to it and so, from the surface, Norway seems to have played ball. But hold on! Don’t they say the devil is always in the detail? What exactly is the meaning of what Mr. Solheim said?”

Because the dear leader has said aid with strings attached is unwelcome any aid has strings attached and is thus bad for Zimbabwe, in Huni’s considered opinion.

That Mr. Solheim said the US$10 million is for the country’s health and education sectors was indicative of the strings attached to the aid package he announced.

Notwithstanding the desperate need for capital injection in the sectors singled out the donation must be objected to because it allowed the donor to make a political statement.

The choice of beneficiary Ministries that are under ministers from the MDC appears to be at the centre of Huni’s concerns.

“The talk is that aid, such as the one coming from Norway, is meant to spruce up the image of the MDC in preparation for a post-inclusive Government election. This decision was taken after the MDC-T managed to negotiate for the majority of social services ministries in Government,” lamented Huni.

But on closer analysis it is not exactly the issue. Rather it is the fact that Zanu PF lost Social services ministries to the MDC which are now proving to be more popular with the electorate as they are making a difference in the lives of the hitherto oppressed general public.

“Why is Norway choosing the distributors of the funds on behalf of the Government? Yes, this is Norwegian money, but what will stop Norway from pushing the regime change agenda via these chosen channels? While the UN and the WB may be used as cover-ups, the real deal is with the NGOs.”

Therein lies the fears driving Huni. By funding ministries held by Ministers from the MDC the donors are seen as pursuing not a social improvement agenda but rather a political agenda that favours the MDC.

Huni would derive pleasure if the donation was made to the government without specifications of its intended use or if the specification was to equip the security ministries headed by Ministers from Zanu PF for use in purchasing of repression ammunition to be used against civilians.

How that would improve the welfare of the ordinary Zimbabwean remains a mystery only Huni and Zanu Pf can explain.

Huni still yearns for the good old days when the ‘war cabinet’ and the so called ‘development cabinet’ which destroyed all developed infrastructure used to plunder and pillage the economy for his and Zanu PF’s benefit without anyone questioning the impunity.

We are now being told that donations are debts and debts are political problems rather than financial problems.

This is rather weird because debts are by their nature financial transactions which fall in the economic rather than political science sphere. Bad politicking forces governments to incur bad debts to finance unproductive political agendas and when that happens it does not mean debts have suddenly transformed into political science.

The fact that creditors and debtors can use financial transactions to achieve a political objective is neither here nor there as any organised activity requires participants to make choices about how they want the project funded and in the absence of own financial resources borrowing becomes the finance option of first choice but if grants and donations can be secured surely they would be the cheaper and more sensible option to fall back on.

No wonder why the RBZ stole from depositor funds to finance Zanu PF political initiatives. It was this kind of extraterrestrial economic advice from Zanu PF morons that the bank relied on to justify theft.

“What is Norway’s motive in providing the US$10 million aid package? What is the motive of all the European countries that suddenly want to play the "good Samaritan" by providing salaries for civil servants?”Huni asks.

But Norway did not volunteer the aid but rather the Zimbabwe Junta government fronted by non other than current coalition government President Mugabe sent an international SOS after the country was plagued with a Cholera pandemic the government was ill prepared to contain.

So much about baseless accusations against the west for suddenly realising that there is a word called generosity.

The averment to studies showing there is no collaration between aid and national growth and stability is most unfortunate coming from a Zimbabwean in a position supposed to be occupied by the enlightened who can advise others on economic matters.

Does Huni expect us to believe that Zimbabwe as a pariah state between 2000 and 2008 performed better economically than it did as a member of the commonwealth and qualifying member of the global fund?

All statistical data at hand points to the contrary and thus disproves the under researched topic and conclusions reached by Dr Dambisa Moyo, the Zambian economist Huni relies on who appears to be of questionable qualifications.

If 37 of the 47 least developed countries globally are the highest beneficiaries of aid that does not mean their poverty is ascribed to their reliance on aid but rather their failure to apply received aid to productive enterprise due to corruption.

Of all the "begging experts" in the inclusive Government none come bigger than President Mugabe whose regime has left the country saddled with a US$10 billion foreign debt and US$ 59 billion domestic debt.

“No one doubts the intelligence of some ministers in the inclusive Government, but if they remain stuck in yesteryear promises that aid will flow ad infinitum into Government coffers, and then all the brains will be put to waste,” pontificated Mr Huni.

Huni can do the country a lot of favour by staying as far away from acting as the government’s economic adviser because he simply does not have the basic know how in that area.

Zanu PF listened to his advice and borrowed billions through printing worthless Zim dollars now we are paying through reliance on donor funding and global borrowing to bridge the economic ravine created by successive Zanu PF regimes since 1980.

Zanu PF propagandists howling the Shuramatongo howl

First out o the kernels was the fattened Herald Political Editor Caesar Zvayi

When dogs are unleashed they run around the homestead searching for the enemy.
They bark howl and growl at any moving object in sight and when they are echoed by other dogs in the neighbourhood they respond to failure to breach the homestead perimeter fence due to training with a growl that is normally termed shuramatongo (bad omen foretelling possible relocation of the homestead) in Shona.

That is what is happening within the Zanu PF propaganda machinery at state controlled media.

The formation of the coalition government and the modest fiscal discipline that has followed has exposed the Zanu PF sanctions myth to be a fallacy.

Inflation that had gone off radar due to sanctions has been turned into deflation for 3 consecutive months notwithstanding that the sanctions regime that Zanu PF has been wailing about is still very much in force.

The RBZ money printing press has been shut and the Zim-dollar has been made redundant by the policy shift from stringent forex controls to liberal usage of multiple foreign currencies

The Zanu PF sanctions propaganda has been disproved as empty retail outlets shelves have been restocked to the brim with all the basics that disappeared after the Junta waged a military onslaught on inflation which failed dismally.

Meanwhile the vanguard party has no other rallying point on which to fool the public except to claim credit for the economic stabilisation that followed the entry of the MDC into government.

As usual the better fed dogs will have more energy when the kernels are opened and the leashes undone.

That is why Herald Political Editor Caesar Zvayi, embarrassingly deported from Botswana in 2008 after seeking economic sanctuary from the country he despises as a haven of American imperialism after the Zanu PF regime he had supported unreservedly failed to mitigate his decline into destitution while working for the flagship State Publishing House, decided it was time to put political finesse to the argument for Dr Gono’s retention at the RBZ.

Dr Gono had made it possible, through quasi fiscal indulgences of the Central bank, for Zvayi to return straight back into his former job at promotional level on deportation from Botswana with improved conditions of service, including a state of the art Mercedes Benz, generous Housing and hygiene benefits for himself and family.
What better way to scratch his back now that the Governor was under siege than to stand up for him.

Zvayi went for brook and stated that lynching Dr Gono was a Barabbas type sell-out gospel by thankless beneficiaries of his ingenuity.
In his hate filled and scornful opinion article loaded with loathsome dismissal of the MDC involvement with governance of the country Zvayi let it all hang out for the RBZ Governor in his hour of need calling the clamouring for his dismissal a red herring.

“MDC-T is trying to reduce the so-called GPA to a document about firing and appointing people, and MDC and Zanu-PF, by agreeing to be strung along like little boys without minds of their own.

The so-called GPA, I say so-called because there is nothing global or solely political about it, is actually a broad-based diagnosis of the challenges facing Zimbabwe,” he lamented.

“It is, however, unforgivable that in a country facing so many challenges, including the indignity of having its President, the entire executive and well-trained professionals taking home a paltry US$100 living allowance, a politician worth his salt would want the whole nation to believe that hounding the RBZ Governor and Attorney General out of office, and politicising the civil service, are the major outstanding issues confronting Zimbabwe today?”added a clearly distraught Zvayi.

For obvious reasons he conveniently avoids telling us why a self respecting President would accept the US$100 per month pittance payment from the nation he has led to dizzy heights of economic prosperity over 3 decades of uninterrupted hegemony and more tellingly what the same president was paying his workers by the end of January 2009 before the MDC politician unworthy of his salt intervened with the US$100 monthly payment from nowhere.

According to Zvayi there are more serious considerations that should occupy the MDC Finance Minister’s time like “ruinous economic sanctions that have been condemned by progressive people the world over which continue to hamper the progress of the inclusive Government. And Biti himself is on record admitting this.”

There is also the question of “farmers who should by now be busy breaking the clod to give the nation winter wheat, but who are currently out on a limb wondering how they would get the crop into the ground given that the little savings they had were rendered worthless, when someone, without Cabinet authority opted to pronounce the death of the Zim-dollar when it is still transacting among the commuting public.”

And much more “we have pirate radio stations that continue spewing hate speech into Zimbabwe to foster political discord, foreign governments continuing to bankroll and host the pirate stations, with not even a whimper from some of the parties to the GPA.”

“We have foreigners who think they have a God-given right to direct the politics of our country yet Gono’s would-be executioners have never raised their tongues against such interference.

We have under-equipped hospitals, tottering schools, comatose universities, a depressed industrial sector, you name it, yet Gono, and Tomana, are being pushed as the outstanding issues confronting Zimbabwe today.

Yet the ‘‘crime’’ these men committed, would pale in comparison to the crimes of their accusers.

Men who not only consorted with outsiders to bring our country to near ruin but some of whom helped draft the ruinous US sanctions law, the so-called Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, that they still refuse to condemn to this day.
The Accusers who compiled sanctions lists which they dutifully passed on to Western capitals.

Surely those are worse crimes than fighting the effects of those sanctions which Gono stands accused of doing. In fact, in their culpability, his accusers can’t even find it in their hearts to call a spade a spade where the sanctions are concerned, opting to call them ‘‘restrictive measures’’ or just ‘‘measures’’, as if they do not see the ruin the sanctions have wrought.

It is said those in glasshouses should not throw stones, for if others return fire, they would remain pamhene, pachena chaipo.”

Take that from Zvayi on behalf of the saintly RBZ Governor and the vanguard Party.
But are these not the very same issues that the Zanu PF regime has been focussed on for decades without much success other than the wiping out of the economic worth of Zimbabweans that caused the same writer to seek refuge in Botswana?

What makes Zvayi think if the current FM focuses on these issues he will realise different results from those realised by his Zanu PF heroes including Dr Gono the financial engineering genius he has taken gloves off for?

“Speaking of so-called quasi-fiscal activities, isn’t it ironic that the Westerners, who today gleefully push the anti-Gono agenda are themselves currently engaged in massive quasi-fiscal activities, bailing their corporations that are tottering on the brink of collapse after robbing the common man blind?

Gono did not rob anyone, but instead helped the common man keep body and soul together.

Talk of the farm mechanisation programme, the medical sector facility, the buses that we still use today, BACOSSI, FOLIWARS, PLARP, all those seemingly funny abbreviations that helped us keep our country afloat in the face of a decade of ruinous sanctions. And this is the man that some with bloodied hands believe should be launched.

Talk of the pot calling the kettle black?”

Indeed Mr Zvayi. The pot is you and the kettle is also none other than yourself. For how else can we define your thought processes?

You are the pot because you preach the heresy that sanctions were imposed on Zimbabwe when in effect they were imposed on Zanu PF merchants of political violence, looters of private property and national treasure.

If the Zanu PF looters had not embarked on an unholy mission to dispossess political opponents of citizenship rights, property rights, legal rights, human dignity and the right to freely speak their minds and access information of their choice, political affiliation, the right to free economic indulgence and liberty to elect leaders of their choice in a violence free atmosphere what reason would have been advanced for the imposition of diabolic sanctions.

You are the kettle because you are saying the under siege Zimbabweans should have suffered Zanu PF impunity in silence because they were going to benefit from DR Gono’s quasi fiscal interventions in as much as Westerners are benefiting from quasi fiscal interventions by their governments which somehow reached you ears while they are being carried out in muted silence for fear of recrimination by citizens in those countries who were robbed blind and we presume raped, maimed, assaulted, tortured, assassinated, disenfranchised, denied food and unemployment benefits on political affiliation considerations and denied election results after voting against the rogue governments.

Zvayi’s ire with Finance Minister Tendai Biti over the hotly contested RBZ governor incumbency is exacerbated by the fact that he believes everyone benefited from Dr Gono’s quasi fiscal indulgences at the central bank that financed elections and bought the vehicles legislators are proudly driving not excluding himself of course.

He believes the quasi fiscal FOLIWARS operation muted by Dr Gono were the precursor to dollarization now commonly referred to as multicurrency usage.

He argues that by the time Biti became Finance Minister Zimbabwe shops were full to the brim with commodities and the STERP programme was plagiarised from Zanu PF’s NEDPP and NEDP economic blueprints by Biti.

Equally annoying for Zvayi is the fact that the Finance Minister is retracing steps made by his predecessors and the little money flowing in is coming from contacts made at the time he was sentencing Gono to death by firing squad for sabotaging the economy.

“Nothing has come from London, New York or Canberra, but a lot has certainly come from Sadc, and the East, regions that were lampooned along with Zanu-PF,” he wails.
This is the price we have to pay for allowing party functionaries to masquerade as Editors of public media funded by taxpayers’ funds.

They have little respect for national accountability and are obsessed with their political party’s survival at any cost.

When Zvayi says “a lot” of money now sustaining the country has come from Zanu PF’s SADC allies and not from London, New York or Canberra MDC allies the temptation to take what he states as fact is hard to resist but it is patently false.

Despite SADC promises to help fund the coalition government they imposed on Zimbabweans against their wish they have dismally failed to live by their word and are globetrotting to London Washington, Canberra, and other Western countries with Zimbabwe’s begging bawl in hand pleading for sanctions to be lifted and aid for the country’s reconstruction .

It is a fact that Zimbabwe’s dominant currency at present is the US dollar and Zvayi does not seriously advance that this is any way a Sadc currency.
When the same Westerners sought to be included in finding a lasting solution for the country which would make them feel confident and willing to deal with the establishment in charge they were told to go hang a thousand times by SADC and Zanu PF.

Now there is need for funding it dawns on Zvayi that the same people that were told to go hang and obliged will suddenly resurrect and spearhead funding for the reconstruction agenda of a regime that has still to satisfy them that it is what Zimbabweans are prepared to work with and hold accountable.

What is wrong with SADC putting their money in the trusted hands of the establishment they have imposed?

As for the Finance Minister benefiting from predecessor contacts it just goes to show how inane propagandists can become when compromised by political patronage.
Governments change leadership hands not responsibilities towards citizens. Tendai Biti would gladly forfeit any residual accruals from predecessor contacts if the same principle is extended to the liability he has inherited of a debilitating national debt incurred by his out of sorts predecessors and whose application he is being denied a chance to investigate and establish proper usage of.

In conclusion Zvayi believes STERP which was crafted as a continuity of NEDPP and NEDP is still a paper tiger without supporting driving funding and will fail as the Western would be backers are insisting on meaningful change before releasing funds which meaningful change is unacceptable to the coalition government as it has potential of reversing pro people policies like chaotic land reforms.
Sad indeed. What is pro-people in chaos? Assuming for once that aid with meaningful change strings attached is declined what benefit would accrue from pro-people policies the initiators are incapable of financing to fruition?

“We have to stop focusing on trivia and concentrate on the real issues in need of redress. Anyone who continues harping on trivia to divert the people’s attention is the real enemy of the people, and has no business pretending to be moving in step with the nation.”

Well said Mr Zvayi. The starting point is a call on all those being fingered as impediments to the lifting of sanctions and inducing foreign aid and or foreign direct investment to kick-start our tottering economy back to life to put national interest ahead of personal glory and step aside and allow the nation a chance to gain from their selflessness.

Calling for the lifting of sanctions if there are any to be lifted is itself inadequate to cause the lifting of the sanctions.

The surest way of getting sanctions lifted is to deny the imposers the pretext for imposing any embargo against our country and its leadership.

If sanctions are truly the wedge between our national progress and global partnerships for development we must get our priorities right and ask if it would benefit us to comply with the demands of the imposers or refuse to be bullied and sweat it out to prosperity somehow.


There is absolutely no justification for the spin euphemisms coming from the Herald which have no chance on earth of lifting the sanctions if any are in place.

Who let the Zanu PF dogs out?

Zanu PF Kernel managers Patrick Chinamasa,Military Commanders and War Veterans Commander of Farm Invasions and Electoral violence Joseph Chinotimba have unlocked the kernelsand let loose the dogs

Following a 3 months lull in political vitriol the Zanu PF merchants of hate and spin have been unleashed once again in a show of what lies ahead for the coalition government’s proposed reform agenda.

Zanu PF President Robert Mugabe opened the cages and unleashed the hate propaganda machinery he had instructed to lie low until the opportune time arose.

And the wiling tools of oppression took to their newly found freedom with renewed vigour albeit with signs of discord because the situation on the ground has somewhat changed for the better and the party desperately needs to be credited with the improvements.

It is no secret that Zanu PF power is vested in the Security forces and the bureaucracy has been moulded around providing unlimited financial support and favourable media coverage for the military expedition.

It all started when coalition government principals failed to complete the power sharing process beyond Cabinet level as envisaged in the 15 September 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) and the aggrieved MDC principal subscribers decided to refer the stalemate to the agreement’s SADC and AU guarantors for arbitration against the wish of the Zanu PF principal.

In a normal democracy the disagreements would be put to vote for final determination but then the Zimbabwe coalition government is anything but a democratic entity.

It is a government that has been forced down the throats of a disillusioned, physically and emotionally buttered and subdued electorate by a recalcitrant Junta with SADC and AU complicity.

Instead of voting to dispose contentious issues the supposedly apex trio of custodians of our sovereignty have to outsource our internal affairs to neighbouring countries leadership to comply with the distasteful precedent set by “our” Military commanders to suspend electoral verdicts in favour of “good neighbourly” solutions to our political disputes.

Because the Zanu PF leader is also fronting the Military any voting against his wishes will be annulled by military force leaving neighbour states arbitration the only other dispute resolution course with available to anyone against Mugabe.

Such is the state of our sovereignty that we are ruled by decrees from other countries surrounding ours.

When the power sharing of provincial political leadership at government level indicated that Zanu PF was destined to play second fiddle to the MDC as it has been forced to do in Parliament, Mugabe and his Militant handlers decided it was time for Zanu PF to disregard the agreement that legitimised its leader’s imposed headship of the State after losing elections.

The MDC, whose participation in the coalition government is heavily premised on the accurate calculation that the popular party stands better chances of democratising the country within government corridors of power that as outside opposition without control of statutory resources and institutions, has infuriated Mugabe and his Military establishment backers by stabilising the country’s economy that had been in free fall for more than a decade within three months of joining the government.

In doing so the MDC has severely dented the chances of Zanu PF ever being re-elected to rule the country and Zanu PF and its backers are not amused by the prospect of being relegated to opposition benches come the next elections whenever they will be held with guarantees that the outcome will not be interfered with militantly.

It was on this basis that Mugabe refused to entertain power sharing with the coalition partners beyond Cabinet and Parliament in the hope that the bureaucracy that has served him and Zanu PF with unflinching loyalty would play a crucial role in enhancing waning Zanu PF electoral fortunes as all credit for the little good coming out of the coalition government is somehow being credited to the MDC no matter what effort Zanu PF puts to claim the credit.

The MDC is focussed on two critical political projects that have been the exclusive trump card of Zanu PF power entrenchment strategies.

Replacement of the flawed Constitution and abuse of State funds and institutions to promote and entrench Zanu PF hegemony ranks uppermost and the charming of the electorate with a demonstration of the party’s capacity and depth to turnaround the ravaged economy and social services is a close second.

This is why the party has been uncompromising on the question of political appointees in the coalition government and the constitution making process.

Zanu PF and the Military never imagined that the MDC would be able to stabilise the economy to the extent it has done without a deluge of international aid from its “Western Masters” who it had calculated would not come on board as long as Zanu PF kept the chaotic land reforms as chaotic as ever and legal impunity as unchecked as it was before the coalition government.

The political maturity and depth within the MDC-T so often publicly ridiculed for want of strategic thing has been demonstrated by its ability to read through these well coordinated Zanu PF political strategies to deny it any tangible success and its refusal to quit the coalition government in protest to the deliberate breaches of the GPA by Zanu PF which are calculated to derail the Constitution making process and set the stage for the democratisation revolution.

Realising that no amount of deliberate disregard of GPA clauses will shrug off the MDC involvement in government Mugabe and Zanu PF decided it was time to be totally unreasonable and openly defiant if MDC political progress through the GPA was to be checked.

Unilateral political appointees from within Zanu PF structures he had assigned to manage the critical positions at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and in the Attorney General’s (AG)Office in defiance of the procedure he had personally signed in the GPA were fait accompli he announced at the funeral of the RBZ governor’s brother in response to MDC National Council announcement that it had resolved to refer the disputed appointments to SADC for arbitration in terms of the GPA dispute resolution proviso.

That was the signal that the party’s propagandists were waiting for to go on the unrestrained offensive against the MDC-T which seems to be making shocking inroads in hitherto Zanu PF enclaves of political support which were no go areas for opposition parties but are now there for the taking through the coalition government involvement protection.

The announcement was a panic response to the report tabled before the Zanu PF Politburo showing the party was losing grassroots support in droves in its power enclaves to the MDC due to modest economic stabilisation measures so far scored by the MDC in its short stint in government and the prospects any further dilution of power in government would have if the bureaucracy was supportive.

Coupled with the prospect that SADC will find it difficult to condone an open breach to an agreement it worked so hard to realise and changes in South Africa’s leadership and uncertainty about shifting paradigms in SADC as a consequence the risk had to be managed somehow at the micro level before MDC became entrenched as the saviour party.

And who better to do that than the trusted compromised State media?
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, Air Vice Marshal Henry Muchena, Mashonaland Central Provincial Governor Advocate Dinha and Zanu PF apologist “Bishop” Trevor Manhanga took turns to echo the Zanu PF leader and set the agenda for the propagandists at the same funeral declaring that the RBZ Governor’s position was filled and end of story as decreed by the President.

They basically instructed the state controlled media propagandists to go out of the kernels and bark the message that whoever was unhappy with that decree can go hang at the same time he risked provoking the military to invoke a military solution similar to what happened to those that opposed Mugabe’s re-election bid in the June 2008 sham Presidential runoff election.

Liberation War Veterans militia commander of chaotic Commercial Farm invasions Joseph Chinotimba whose active participation in the Liberation War against colonists remain as shrouded in secrecy as it was when he emerged as the commander of Farm invasions weighed in with the germ that his followers will respond to any attempt to relieve Gideon Gono of his position with renewed invasions of the remaining 300 odd commercial farms that are still in White Settler ownership.

A frightening prospect indeed after Air Vice Marshal Henry Muchena had indicated that Dr Gono was a key member of the Military establishment whose ejection at the Central bank would provoke Military mutiny against the coalition government sponsors of the punitive action against the RBZ Governor.

The state owned Herald newspaper followed this development up with first an opinion piece from disgraced former Information and Publicity Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo of the AIPPA and POSA repressive statutes wherein he claimed that the modest economic stabilisation credit that the MDC claims to have achieved in its first 100 days in government was infact a result of the Zanu PF Budget and Monetary policy in January 2009 which hailed multicurrency usage in the country and mitigated runaway hyper inflation that had gone off radar by the end of 2008.

The loathed Zanu PF reject professor was bidding for the retention of Dr Gono’s services at the central Bank as it had benefited him immensely due to his close ties with Dr Gono.

But nobody believes him because for a decade Zanu PF had presided over a nose diving economy with record world inflation for a country at peace this century and had no idea whatsoever how to deal with the problem continuing to print worthless paper money and slashing zeros when they became unmanageable for accounting technology.

It was only after the signing of the GPA that Zanu PF realised the MDC was imminently coming on board to govern the country and would not accept the nonsensical print money fiscal policy that the RBZ and the Acting Junta Finance Minister reviewed the MDC fiscal policies and adopted the liberalisation of the forex market which hitherto Zanu PF had controlled with an iron fist creating crimes like externalisation of forex as if such currencies were ever localised in Zimbabwe.

It was the MDC policy on fiscal liberalisation that the Junta plagiarised but defaced by proposing forex voucher payment systems as opposed to free for all cash forex access.

The idea was always to retain real forex money within Zanu PF exclusive access while all else used paper vouchers which were easier to print in huge quantities and use to access scarce forex reserves at the RBZ on political patronage considerations for the privileged few.

Not to be outdone by a disgraced Zanu PF reject Dr Gono personally claimed he and 6 others have been offered bribes by the MDC in his case up to US$10.5 million to resign his job an offer he declined with the contempt it deserves.

He further claimed in a leaked at source letter addressed to the Premier but never delivered to him that he had single handedly deferred Zimbabwe’s total economic collapse and claimed credit for the measures that have now been plagiarised by the Finance Minister in the Short Term Economic Recovery Programme (STERP).

With that the dogs were let loose and are barking ferociously at the enemy of the State the MDC for to them, Zanu PF is the State and the State is Zanu PF therefore Dr Gono being part of Zanu PF State cannot be uprooted without defacing the State and that is not permissible.

Four soldiers die in Chiadzwa but.....

The State owned Herald has announced the death of four members of the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) deployed in the Marange diamond fields.

For a publication that has for ages refused and or failed to publish statistics of Zimbabwe military expeditions casualities to sddenly spring up and disclose the surprise yet welcome data is most refreshing and must be encouraged.


Two of the soldiers were shot dead by unknown assailants while the other two died after a drunken brawl between an officer and a private manning one of the several roadlocks in the diamond fields area where the Army and Central Inteligence Officers were deployed to restore law and order following a diamond rush by approximately 20 000 fortune seekers.

There are allegations that nearly 80 of these were gunned down by the security agents and several thousand others were tortured by the ZNA operatives by being forced to cover up the craters that were dug by the fortune hunters.
MKD spokesman denford Magora recently disclosed that the 80 corpses are now interred in 37 shallow mass graves at the Chitungwiza Unil “L” cemetery.

We hope the new culture of openness about military casualties in their operations will lead to the state controlled media attoning for its past secretive and selective disclosures and lead it to disclose the actual numbers of ZNA casualties during the Mozambique and DRC interventions.

Further to that the medis could also publish the details of actual numbers of casualities of the Gukurahundi, Murambatsvina, Price wars and Electoral violence.

Any country that refuses to disclose statistical data of its military operations casualities alienates the military establishments from the populace it is supposed to serve and creates reasonable grounds speculative accusations of violations of human rights which may well have been justified by threats to national soveregnty and peaceful order of the state.