Our beloved Zimbabwe was once the bread basket of Southern Africa. Now it is the basket case of Africa. All countries in Southern Africa, were reliant on Zimbabwe in times of hardships, be it famine or times of unstable political or economic environment. So now we all wonder how we came to be what we are now. Zimbabwe was an exporter of grain, tobacco and beef and it even had quotas to meet in the EU, but now we cannot even feed ourselves. Zimbabwe is now an importer of almost everything. This is all because of the disastrous economic and political policies of Mugabe and his Zanu PF.
What Mugabe and his advisors didn`t understand is that Zimbabwe is an agro-based economy and by destroying agriculture, he was in fact destroying the back-bone of the economy and thereby destroying our beloved Zimbabwe. Mugabe politicised the land issue and used it to solicit for votes from his supporters and to silence the war veterans instead of embarking on a managed agrarian reform.
Mugabe, despite having started the destruction of the economy in 1997 by giving out the zw$50000 to silence the war veterans cash and misusing the war victims compensation, he didn’t hear the alarm bells ringing when the Zimbabwe dollar nose-dived and lost its value against major currencies in a blink of an eye. The real victims of the war were never compensated. Chenjerai Hunzvi was the one used by the Zanu PF thugs to loot the fund and Mugabe did nothing as he was part of the looters.
Mugabe continued with his disastrous policies in order to buy votes from the poor people of Zimbabwe. He embarked on a chaotic land reform programme, grabbing utilised commercial farmland and giving it to his supporters. He targeted land owned by white commercial farmers only, confiscated it through his draconian laws. The exercise was done haphazardly thereby hurting the economy.
Mugabe used the land issue as a campaign tool against the opposition. He used the land issue to campaign for the 2002 presidential election against the MDC. Mugabe really knew that the issue of land was an unresolved issue that he had overlooked for many years, but now because he knew his support was shrinking, he used the real issue that people went to war for to his own advantage.
He was facing a real challenge from the MDC, so he embarked on a corrupt and chaotic land redistribution programme but his aim was to win the votes and the real people who needed the land never benefited but they were pushed deeper into poverty while Mugabe and the Zanu PF elite were enriching themselves. Mugabe and Grace have managed to grab in excess of ten farms between them while the majority of Zimbabweans are still living in poverty and struggling to have a single decent meal on their tables.
In essence the land was never redistributed but instead Mugabe and his cronies just used the people to grab those farms they had eyed for themselves for years and the masses of Zimbabwe are still landless. Mugabe and Zanu PF are cruel, they will use you to their advantage and before you realise, they will throw you out. Zanu PF and Mugabe have no mercy for the people of Zimbabwe, all they want is to see the country in chaos and the people suffering.
Mugabe was not finished yet. After having failed the nation by destroying commercial farming, he embarked on a money printing spree with his blue eyed boy Gideon Gono at the helm of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. They masterminded how to enrich themselves whilst propping up Zanu PF. Without foreign currency from exports, the country couldn’t balance its books and the country couldn’t import the basic necessities like grain and fuel. Gono was tasked with devising ways of keeping Mugabe and Zanu PF in power.
He started running the country with the authority from Jongwe. At one time people were asking who was the president, Mugabe or Gono? He embarked on quasi-fiscal activities meant to keep Zanu PF in power. He embarked on a money printing spree. The money printing machine at Fidelity Printers was put on a 24/7 shift. Gono was printing money at an alarming rate, changing denominations of the currency like a possessed man. As the Gono money became more and more useless, the RBZ resorted to buying foreign currency from anyone, everywhere including Mupedzanhamo market, Road port and the diaspora.
Those who were in the business of sourcing the foreign exchange for the RBZ, would confirm that the RBZ was always the highest bidder when it came to buying forex from the black market. Gono wanted all the forex coming into the country to be in the RBZ`s coffers.
Gono`s activities fuelled inflation to an alarming rate and rendered the zw$ useless. Gono tried everything to save this useless currency but couldn’t sustain the pressure. He couldn`t cope with inflation let alone convince the people to accept it as legal tender. He tried recycling the old currency including coins but it couldn`t work. I wonder which economics Gono was applying. He was used by Zanu PF and Mugabe and he ignored all sound economic advice.
Gono became public enemy number one because people who had money in savings accounts, just woke up one morning and found out that they had lost everything they had worked for in their entire life. Mr Gono, I think the nation deserves an apology on this one.
Gideon Gono refused to take the blame in the destruction of the economy. He asked one reporter how one man can destroy the economy of the entire country. So in other words he is agreeing to destroying the economy but he is refusing to take the blame alone. Anywhere Gono, you know who you were trying to please when you landed us into this mess. Everyone knows you, Gono and your boss Mugabe masterminded the demise of this once vibrant economy. We all know that you did this to keep Mugabe and Zanu PF in power and to continue looting the little that this country still has. Gono you must go but you must not go alone. You know who to go with.
Mugabe must go to save Zimbabwe and Gono you must go too to save this economy. Mugabe is a liability to his party, its only that no-one is brave enough in Zanu PF to tell you this and anywhere they are benefiting from your incompetencies. You protect their corrupt activities so they would want to be protected as long as you are alive.
Gideon Gono is the stumbling block at RBZ. Why cant Gono just resign and leave the new minister of finance to implement sound reforms and revive this economy. When we talk about reforms at the central bank, Mr Gono, we ate talking about you leaving that building in Samora Machel avenue and maybe work in Zanu PF`s tuckshops. Now we hear Mugabe talking about bringing back the ZW$.
Please gentlemen, get back to your senses and give this economy the chance to recover and attract investment first before we can think of our own currency. (Apa Gushungo marasika). Mr president you are lost, cant you see the green shoots of recovery since you gave the ministry of finance to the capable hands of Honourable Tendai Biti. Give him a chance and if he fails then we can blame him.
Gono and Mugabe, we have had enough of your failed policies, so please don’t poke your nose into this money side. Retire and live in your Borrowdale mansions before we decide to start investigating where the money used to build those mansions came from.
See you next time.
“What we want to tell Mugabe is, please go peacefully or we will remove you violently”
Chuckle!!!!!
Hey wait a minute. Wasn’t that like a decade ago.
@ Abel.
The short answer is…..YES
The long answer is dependent upon the current negotiations on the GPA.
CHUCKLE..!!!!!!
Zimbabwe will progress when those like Abel who benefited from the land reform program and Gono’s bush economics admit that all these activities may have been necessary but were chaotically executed for the benefit of the politicians –
zanu pf in particular! once that admission is made then we start reconstructing the country by taking land away from cellphone and laptop farmers and offer it to those who are capable to farm commercially. Since agriculture was the backbone of our economy, it is common knowledge that they should be land designated for commercial farming not to villagise it and turn most of it into graveyards!
You have been hearing this for the past decade, so it must mean it will never happen. nobody can remove Mugabe. he is sooo smart. he is soo powerful.
YOU ARE RIGHT ABEL. THERE IS NOTHING ANYBODY CAN DO. MUGABE IS JUST TOO SMART AND CAN DO ANYTHING HE WANTS. AND NOBODY CAN DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT.
are you happy now??? Abel
Abel, you called Tsvangirai a Teaboy but you are now drinking tea with him. Morgan had to show that he had the stamina in order to penetrate the difficult Zimbabwe politics
Abel, i’m impressed
mugabe has got to go. Ndipei pfuti nekti ndirikuenda kumba pakisimusi
Whami, whats impressing you my boet? The fact that a person who said
“What we want to tell Mugabe is, please go peacefully or we will remove you violently”
Is now saying Zanu pf is too violent and that they (MDC) are a peace loving democratic party? The truth is these people are also violent but they met their experienced match and was thumped? chuckle!!!
Ana Hoza, as soon as you cross into Zimbabwean airspace you will start gnashing your teeth. I am sure you are getting this confidence from the Macdonalds you are eating in far off lands.chuckle!!!!
My friend Frazer, one small correction, and this is NOT in defence of Gushungo & Associates, but moreover so that you understand the degree of vile demonic thoughts that drive Mugabe; it is not that he did not understand the basis of an agrarian economy, on the contrary, he knew very well. With the urban population, and to a large degree the rural as well, lost to the opposition; the last bation of POWER to be had was what held the country afloat: AGRICULTURE, more specifically land. With unbriddled control over the land, Gushungo effectively had the country by the gonads and could so do whatever he wished to, as he has been doing for the past decade.
Self preservation my friend, with the emphasis on self, and not that of the nation but of himself and all those who cared to gratify Mugabe with political falatio with all that cheap talk of sovreignty, independance and anti neo-colonialism. What a load of rubbish.
Blow for blow, politically, and dare I say it; physically, MDCs T & M are no match for ZANU, well as long as they believe in thier current leaders.
simbimbino, beware of being labelled a zanoid for your last statement which I have been trying to point out all this time. MDC-T is no match for zanu pf politically. considering the amount of support MDC-T have, they have failed dismally.
Abel, they can label me all they want, the truth shall prevail. I am DEFINATELY NOT a ZANU, or Gushungo sympethiser, categorically not. We have to hold each other accountable, and that includes those that wish or aspire to lead us, the likes of Tsvangi, Mutambara & Co.
Morgizh has monumental support, so there has beeb a transference of hugely positive energy between the people and Tsvangi, however there has no translation of that energy into anything kinetic, I mean real opposition. So what Tsvangi got clobbered by the police, so does that mean those that have paid the ultimate price with thier lives are nonentities? Please give us a break, you MDC-T and Mutambara apologists are exactly the same as ZANU phallus suckers, you do not want to hear anything negative about your leader, let alone how you do business. I do not want people to take up arms against Bob, I’ve said it time and time again, that is not the point, Bob is a bloodthirsty barbarian, who would sell his own mother to the devil if it kept him in power, so coming to blows with him is futile. Nevertheless, this a hugely unpopular government, even across the region, and many governments have been brought to their knees by the solidarity of the people, determined and desparate for change look what happened in Argentina it’s junta after 1983; the orange revolution in eastern Europe in this decade; just a few examples of the power people wield. It leaves me to believe that maybe one or two things, firstly; Tsvangi simply does not know how to use that power the people have to bring about change, or secondly, he probably knows very well how strong the people are and is afraid that once the people see just how dull and naive he actually is, they might get rid of him. I mean, has anyone really bothered to ask this man to elaborately tell us what his manifesto is, what does he really stand for; what are his policies and all those good things we want to hear? In this day and age of wonderful technology, can someone tell me where on-line we can find it?
Brethren, cowardice does not inspire bravery, Gushungo is brave enough and determined to ruin,and burn this counrtry to the ground in bid to hold on to power. Then surely those that aspire to lead us should be equally if not twice as determined to prevent this from happening, and they ought to be at the forefront with vision, guts and spine to lead to the promised land. Look at our forefathers, Mapondera, Makoni, Kaguvi, Tongogara, Chitepo, JZ Moyo, Masuku, Silundika, Chinamano, the list could go on and on. They belong to a differnt era yes they do, it is the calibre of men they were which counts, now can anyone dare say Morgiz has anything near these gallant sons? Nyebayi tiwone.
Simbimbino out.
Simbimbino you are the man. Form a party and we will support you. Noone wants to hear that Morgan is dull and naive. I watched him on 23 November being intervied by an Italian station.Go to you tube and look for it. That man simply does not inspire.Gushungo in his own destructive way is determined to do what he stands for.If only we had someone like that in the opposition camp, it would not have taken a decade to get a half baked arrangement called GNU.
I have often asked these guys what they really stand for in simple matters like issue of land or issue of homosexuality. These are issues that make us Zimbabweans but it seems these are embarrasing questions to answer.