Jayprog

Some SADC leaders operate like a gangster and will not give solutions to the Zimbabwe situation. The fact is that some African leaders are so afraid of democracy that they cannot afford it a chance to exist.

Some people think Zimbabweans are so docile and will never rise against an African regime that is terrorizing them and displacing people in masses. I think Zimbabweans have grown up to realize that war is not the only solution to this catastrophe. The next question then is how come the people of Zimbabwe managed to free themselves from white colonial rule and are now in a situation worse than they were 29 years ago and cannot free themselves again?

The answer to the above question is found in what I call collective effort from not only the people of Zimbabwe but the neighbors also. The war against colonial rule was won because countries like Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Botswana  etc made great efforts to squeeze the colonialists and isolate Rhodesia regionally, this led to the Ian Smith regime failing.

The effort of neighboring countries is very important in correcting a humanitarian crisis. Even in our social lives we need good neighbors to live peacefully with our families.

In my entire life I’d never heard of a country that closed a hospital but thanks to Zanu PF I’ve witnessed it. Things that are happening in Zimbabwe are horrible and very soon it is going to be worse than what is happening in a war zone.

The situation in Zimbabwe could have been resolved after the March 2008 election in which Zanu Pf lost to the MDC- T in all elections. Zimbabweans will remember Mr. Thabo Mbeki as a man who spoiled their future by telling the world that there was no crisis in Zimbabwe. Mr. Mbeki has always been a careless and biased man when it comes to the Zimbabwe situation. I correctly predicted that this man would leave office before the end of his term and surely he did. It puzzles me then why SADC puts trusts in such a man who was rejected by his own party and country to lead South Africa. Mr. Mbeki has failed and there is need for him to be relieved of his duties as a mediator.

When the Rule of Nature Takes Control

Embracing Communist ideas in a modern world is one challenge that needs total madness to survive. When a tyrant government is faced with numerous failures on the tables and its bag of short term solutions is empty, the masses can expect to hear anything.

The above situation depicts the Zimbabwean situation in which Zanu Pf has run out of ideas and solutions. Blaming to Western countries for the cholera epidemic that is currently ravaging the poor people of Zimbabwe is one shocker that the geriatric gerrymanders in Harare have pulled.

To those who left Zimbabwe long ago they will remember that this type of propaganda is not so new in Zimbabwe. During elections some people in rural areas were misinformed by Zanu Pf that Morgan Tsvangirai is a white man with a Shona name trying to take back the country. Another propaganda claim that Zanu Pf also made was during the 2002 drought. America and Britain were blamed for the drought as the two nations were said to have directed rainfall away from Zimbabwe.

When a dictatorship is about to fall, it is first overwhelmed by catastrophes which rapidly deplete its limited and stretched resources, failure to cope with this leads to blaming external factors. It is followed by dissatisfaction within the echelons of the repressive system. This in essence is an unstoppable cocktail of an uprising that sweeps the dictatorship from power.

In studying dictatorship and tyranny I have realized some common trends exhibited by all dictators who have ever lived and fallen down, Hitler, Kamuzu Banda, Milosevic, Idi Amin, etc, in their ruling years, dictators, all think they will rein forever. They never see the wave of change until it is on their door step.

Dictators never seem to get the truth on the ground, they believe in what they want to happen and so people tend to exaggerate facts and tell the dictator what he wants to hear. In most cases no sane person would want to raise the fury of a tyrant by telling him bad news. Dictators live in an isolated world from the people the rule. In most cases they rule a vast poor people who rely on the dictator to provide food, while on the other hand the dictator lives a plush life and cares little about the people. Little I say because he only needs the people to justify his power and monopoly over the resources of the entire nation.

The recent announcement by the Reserve bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono that the central bank could not account for Z$65 trillion out of the Z$67 trillion printed bearer cheques shows that there is something seriously wrong with the Zimbabwe accounting system at the central bank.

After a careful analysis of the figures it came to light that the shortage of cash was not mainly due to forex dealers as alleged but due to real economic causes. Imagine a country with inflation above 70 000% and street value exchange rate of 1USD: Z$2.5 million. This translates to a real value of USD 28.6 million running a country with a population of 15 million people. This translates to USD1.9 per citizen. 

Taking the above maths into the Zimbabwean economy, it means each citizen has a share value of Z$5 million and the good governor expects people to bank money that is not already sufficient for the citizenry alone. My calculations do not include companies and the government itself(a big spender).

The above analysis simply shows that the governor is fooling the nation and that he wants to blame people for the disappearance of his artificial money. The truth of the matter is that the Zimbabwean economy has a serious deficit of everything that one can imagine and money included.

Since the adjustment of all commodity prices to price as at July 18 2008, the prices have since gone up by more than 1000% against the same amount of money that was still in circulation as at 18 July 2008. As a result of this there is few money chasing very expensive goods and the money is bound to be a scarce commodity by simple economics since the products cannot be converted readily to cash.

The governor needs to abandon bush economics and let the market forces rule the economy. One way is to let the dollar free fall to the level that it settles on its true value against the major currencies. This setup will discourage speculation as the Zim dollar reflects true value. Another way would be allowing the introduction of other currencies into play to stabilise the rising inflation rate. This setup will easy money supply problems in the sense that the RBZ will not be tied to money supply since this will be from export earnings and other informal trade. The true value of forex is on a global index and the shift is not as astronomical as that of the Zim dollar.

In trying to find solutions to these problems, there are many noble ideas that come up but are not taken for selfish reasons that are not taken by politicians who want to profiteer from the system where there is a fixed exchange rate. It is worth to note that the majority of forex earned by the nation is accessed by politicians at 0.012 US cents per 1USD. This shows how lucrative the fixed exchange rate is for the politician.

The bottom line is to remove artificial money from the system to restore sense into the economy.

taxation is another thing that is making the economy go down. In real sense the private sector employees are the ones paying tax to pay the civil servants. The income tax reflected on the civil servants pay slips are artificial and as a results of many companies closing down and brain drain at its peak, the government is getting broke day by day.

No amount of talking and threats will solve the economic problem except facing the real issues. The recent introduction of a new breed of bearer cheques is sign that the system is failing, the central bank shelved the introduction of the   notes after realising that inflation was rising at a rate greater than printing the dollars. Very soon the paper on which the cheques are printed will run out and another disaster is looming. as I write this most Zimbabweans are angry because their holidays have been spoiled due to cash shortages all over the country.

Banks were busy issuing brand new $200 000 notes with RBZ ribbons and one wonders why this money is being issued when it is expiring in 9 days. it bring another thought, is the RBZ governor really serious about the whole exercise? Just like the price controls, it looks like the Price Control Task force has been disbanded. The use of bearer cheques can also continue beyond the deadline since there has not been any deposits coming to the banks anywhere. The new bearer cheques have an issue date of 1st July 2007 and no one knows why the good governor kept the whole bunch of the trading paper when people are suffering.

The liberation struggle African leaders are doing more harm to Africa than the good that those who died during the struggle fought for. One noble thing would be to resign. Most of these leaders are fooling the populace telling them that the West wants to recolonise Africa.

I personally feel that there is no sane leader in the West who would come and colonise a nation in Africa in this 21st century. It's a barbaric chapter of history that was long closed. The last remnants of colonialism in South Africa were sustained by self centred Boers who did not even have the blessing of the Western states. Even Smith's  regime (Rhodesia) was not supported by Britain and yet we find in this civilised era, African leaders who still talk about colonialism.

This brings an interesting point on obsession and politics of patronage in Africa.

A once shining example of emerging democracy in Africa 'was' South Africa but this is colapsing fast and very soon things will fall apart. It takes a lot of sacrifice to build an economy and one fool and a bandwagon of patrons to destroy it.

The concept of Black Empowerment Equity is soon going to destroy South Africa and create a new breed of super rich selfish Africans who cannot even spare a cent to help their fellow rural kin in the slums of Soweto. The same rich Africans are buying shares in every company and at the end of the day this does not address the issue of equitable distribution of wealth.

America was right that Socialist and Communist ideas were to be nipped in the bud. In real sense no democracy can exist in a Communist setup.

All communists are hypocrites and they love Capitalism behind the scenes. Most African politicians were educated abroad Europe and America and benefited through Common Wealth grants, yet today they say these nations are devil states that want to recolonise Africa.

The record should be set straight that the Western States and America are actually helping Africa more than the Communist. Many African leaders are not willing to accept change and most importantly peace.

If one looks at the Sudan issue, you realise that is are a group of morons who cannot accept a simple fact of life that human life is more important than any other thing on earth. Why would anyone in all their senses refuse a UN peace keeping mission saying they want the peace keepers to be made up of an all African contingent? This shows that the Sudan leaders clearly know that their African counterparts would support them to stay in power and continue butchering innocent soles.

African leaders are a team and they will always support each other, they have the same goal, to rule forever.

Recently in Zimbabwe some politicians had their children deported from Australia and they were ranting, let us face the real facts here, if Zimbabwe is such a good country, why do politicians send their children to Australia? This proves my point that Communists are hypocrites.

I think Ms. Jenni Williams  did not have her facts right. I watched her interview with BCC Hardtalk host Stephen Suckur and I realised Stehen did not do his usual type of questioning probably after realising that the interviewee was not really newsworthy.

During the interview she was confused and mixed issues, to the extend Stephen suggested she was more political than civic and would better join the opposition. Also her number-work was not all that good. She claimed WOZA's membership to be 50K and along the lines claimed that 150K of WOZA members were arrested.

I personally would not like put much critisism to the work of this organisation but I think the majority of the participants are opposition members whom Ms. Jenni Williams want to claim to be members of WOZA.

Woza is a small community grouping that has received wide publicity through vigorous public relation but lacks membership to be classified as a national grouping. 50K members out of a population of of 12 million Zimbabweans is just a drop in an ocean.

The problem with these mushrooming woman groups is that they are too noisy and lose focus quickly just like the Girl Child Network led by Betty Makoni. At one time Ms. Makoni claimed that she was also on the Central Intelligence (CIO) hit list . It only came to light recently when Ms Makoni and Rebeca Chisamba were picked up by the police for interfering with state witnesses (girls allegedly raped)

I think there is need to get facts right and promote an amicable working environment rather than politicizing issues when ever failure is imminent.

Zimbabweans are now suffering from a new culture of blaming the ruling Zanu PF for all their problems. I believe there are many things that can be done to improve the current situation rather than dwelling on blame.

‘I have decided to make it the illegal way and normalize the process later’ This is what a good friend of mine that told me before he left to a faraway country, a land of milk and honey.

Five years latter it has worked for him despite him being a failure academically. He is now economically better than me above all.

Have you ever noticed that daring illegal immigrants end up getting the good deal after all.

In the developing countries and especially Africa, many people leave their countries of origin to Europe, USA and all over to get better opportunities. To some extend this reflects on the issue of over developing and ignoring the other face of humanity.

Many recipient countries have problems with illegal immigrants, as most of these people who flee their countries of origin  in most cases do not contribute meaningfully to the economy of the recipient country when they are integrated into those societies. This to some extent is due to the fact that some will be uneducated and some criminals.

There are my ways in which this problem can be addressed. A best example of well-managed immigration is Australia in which people who can contribute meaningfully to the economy are encouraged to emigrate and then eventually granted citizenship. The crime level is still low in this country due to this well managed system.

In Africa a typical example of a badly managed system is South Africa in which the government fails to tap the vast talent in neighboring country that have their economies crumpling. As a result of this a lot of criminals cross the boarders illegally, and since they are social failures in their countries of origin, they simple continue with crime in South Africa rather than looking for employment.

No matter how governments try to fight illegal immigrants, these ‘illegals’ end up getting citizenship anyway. In the long run these criminals build their criminal empires and multiply criminal activities. This is a social and economic disadvantage that could be solved at grass route level if immigration authorities have proper foresight.

The United Kingdom experienced this type problem where a lot of illegal immigrants especially from Zimbabwe were flying into UK and settling as refugees. One has to ask a simple question of how an illegal immigrant manages to cross oceans say from Zimbabwe to UK to claim 'Economic Refugee Status' 

Common sense dictates that the first priority of anyone in economic problems is food but it baffles me how such a person manages to get enough money to pay for airfare across the Atlantic to a faraway country.

To cut a long story short, the UK Authorities quickly realized this and introduced stringent VISA conditions to Zimbabweans to curb the mass exodus. If this country had started managing immigration at an early stage, they would have taken the cream and left the junk that gives problems now.

Just like sunshine in winter, it is only for a short period and South Africa is one African country fooling itself in the middle of a crisis. Most qualified citizens are leaving the country to Australia, America, Canada you name it and the South African Authorities are busy laughing at their northern neighbor instead of tapping the quality labor.

South Africa’s representative to the UN security council Ambassador Dumisani Khumalo needs to be reminded that human rights abuse is a security threat to human kind and that he should not put across careless comments about the Zimbabwean situation.

The Ambassador told a VOA reporter on Saturday night that Zimbabwe is not a security threat and hence should not be discussed under UN Security Council. The ambassador should stop his idea of trivializing human life; the abuse of one person should be a concern to the UN especially if a government that is a signatory to the UN charter perpetrates it.

As an African I know the type of mentality that most African leaders have concerning the welfare of those they rule. Most African leaders do not value life and are only worried in staying in power.

It is slowly becoming apparent that South Africa’s representative to the UN Security Council has an agenda to create controversy by opposing the good that the other members are advocating for. He is the same ambassador who threatened to oppose the Iran issue now I really wonder if this man understands what he is supposed to do.

The South African ambassador should not use the UN platform to settle personal scores at the expense of Zimbabwe and the other countries that need the help of the UN Security Council.

The ambassador should note that opposing everything that is tabled for agenda and voting against such issues is not a solution to the crisis that Africa is facing today. I believe South Africa was not seconded to the non-permanent Security Council so that it will gang up with China and oppose good cause. Zimbabweans are facing the worst economic recession in a country that has great potential because of a few people that the Ambassador is protecting.

This man is not doing good to Zimbabwe and the rest of Africa and should be ashamed by his actions. Let it be known that it is the same Security Council that helped his country to gain freedom from the shackles of apartheid some 10 years ago.

Let us not equivocate a catastrophe of this magnitude by using figures to justify the cruelty that Zimbabweans are exposed to. Every citizen has the right to shelter, freedom, peace, food and nationality and these thing are not so abundant in Zimbabwe and they pose a security threat to the world because human beings are made to suffer by other beings who can be brought to justice by the UN through sanctions and embargos.

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When the Church becomes an enemy of the State, change is imminent.

 The recent ranting by the Zimbabwean leader about Catholic Bishops is just but a tip of the iceberg. Surely only the Devil can go against the Biblical principle and the old man wants to convince the world that he is the only logical person in a country with almost every worst case of statistic, 80% unemployment, 2200% inflation rate, etc.

It is so ironic that the Catholic becomes bad today considering that it helped Zanu Pf during the liberation struggle. Lest these people forget the simple fact that 'whatever bad things you do they surely will catch up with you' The reason why Catholic Bishops are vocal is because they are not so economic with the truth unlike Obadiah Musindo and his other band wagon who fear political leaders not knowing that God is the only Almighty.

 The problem with Zanu Pf as a system is that the leadership wants to substitute God and represent Him in Zimbabwe. If the Roman Catholic opposed Smith through Moto Magazine and now Zanu Pf, it simply shows that these two systems (Zanu Pf and UDI) are now one and the same thing - an impediment to democracy.

 Let the Bishops speak lest they will fall short before God for turning a blind eye to a system that brings suffering to the  children of God.

 As a Catholic the old man should learn to listen to his spiritual leaders. Gal 6:6-7 

The announcement by the Zimbabwe government to force importers of cars and luxury goods to pay duty in foreign currency proves the point that this government does not respect its own laws.

This announcement is going to have disastrous effects on the already ailing economy in the sense that there are going to be a reduced imports. The definition of luxury items is as per Zanu Pf thinking and it is surprising to me that Zimbabwe still considers food items such as cooking oil flour, rice and margarine to name a few as luxury goods. This in simple terms means Zanu Pf has devised mechanism to stop people from importing food since it will be expensive to pay duty in forex. As such, every Zimbabwean will have to depend on the government for food and this works well for the coming elections in 2008.
I have always haboured a sense that this Zimbabwe government is supported by a strong devil considering the way things happen when elections are due. There is always a drought, escalation of shortages, diseases etc that always work in favour of Zanu Pf.

Recently the same government was breathing fire to estate agents and home owners for demanding rentals in for-ex saying the legal tender was still the Zimbabwe dollar.

In honest sense no investor would want to risk their money in Zimbabwe were laws can be changed over night to suit the ruling party.

This is not a surprise move because as for me I now know the tricks that Zanu Pf uses whenever its leadership is desperate to sustain a lavish life styles.

This type of machination once happened after farm invasions when duty on all farming equipment was scrapped. This was done so that the big wigs could get equipment for their newly acquired farms. This however backfired as the EU imposed sanctions and they were left with SA and Asia as the only places to do business with.

The reason why duty has to be paid in forex now is to enable the big wigs to sell the large stock of vehicles that they bought during the past months when they were speculating that Gono would devalue the dollar.

Now that these gooks were stuck with stock they could not sell, they searched for a reason and solution and they found it. Every Tom and Dick was able to import a used car and pay a paltry duty of between Z$500 000 and 1mil. This was a direct threat to the 'shefs' in Zanu Pf.

In simple terms people are supposed to buy from the shefs and not compete with them. The introverts in Zanu Pf are now working hand in glove with the Reserve Bank govenor to propel austerity.

People have to realize that Zimbabwe is a tilting play-field with movable goal posts and as long as Zanu Pf is in control of the playfield you cannot win the game the rules change faster than the speed of play and by the time you think you are about to reach the goal post you are taken back several steps.
Zimbabwe is a country run by an oligarch geriatric gerrymander. The recent announcement to increase the constituencies proves this point and paves ways for nipping the birth of democracy in the bud.

I would rather stay a foreigner in a country that has leadership that respects freedom and the well being of its citizens and 'the other creatures as well.

Zimbabwe is a typical Stagflation and the major priority should be restoring investor confidence rather than scaring them. The government should delist vehicles as luxury considering the transport problems that the majority of Zimbabweans are facing.

The job stay-away that was scheduled for 3 to 4 April 2007 in Zimbabwe has shown one big thing that the opposition and the Labour organization have got to address. This event was a failure and it spells the clear message that the concerned parties advocating for democratic change have to change their tactics.

It is now imminent fact that Znu PF has advanced it's machinations and it is nearing a point of becoming an immovable stumbling block to democracy not only at home but also regionally.

Considering that the SADC meeting that was held last week in Tanzania did not come with any meaningful solutions to the Zimbabwe crisis it is now upon the people of Zimbabwe to take the full task to them and show the way for change. In a revolution some people have to die. At the moment people in Zimbabwe think that their problems have to be solved by someone from outside but sadly this cannot be.

The reason why Zanu PF wins all the time is that it is a strategist movement that keeps ahead of people and has established a database of the country's political landscape including the profiles of those who are at the forefront of propelling change issues. Zanu PF has always made it clear even during the liberation struggle that it has to keep the main thing the main thing all the time and in this case it (Zanu PF) is Zimbabwe's main thing.

 The adage that 'the strength of a string is its weakest point' holds more water in the Zimbabwean political case than any other example. Zimbabwean re a hungry lot and sort of cowards ware so afraid of death that they cannot do anything once reminded of the past. This is the reason why Zanu PF stays in power. Hunger and fear play a pivotal role in sustaing the ruling party.

 Common philosophy tells us that a hungry man is an angry man but then to tame the anger yoone needs to have mechanisms of continuously controlling the hopes and hunger levels within optimistic levels. This is what the ruling party is doing at the moment.

 Many people are surprised why the ruling party continues to field the same candidate for presidential elections. This is a sure way of wining, all people in Zanu PF are power hungry and equally afraid of the beast that they created and cannot tame at the moment and as such one has to appear to be friendly to the system so that they can survive. If one dares to oppose the system it means their demise politically if they are fortunate.

 The greatest tragedy that Zimbabwe has ever experienced in its political sphere is the advent of Jonathan Moyo. This man destroyed the will of the people and put the country on a steep collision course with all control instruments lost. If Jonathan Moyo did not disturb the nation Zanu PF would have lost and we could be talking of a new era now.

 Now people are so afraid of expressing their rights and views to the extend that they walk more than 25km to work so as to appear that they are patriotic.

 Some companies are now paying transport allowances that are more than basic salaries and even providing food at work so that employees can keep on coming to work. This is unacceptable in any civiliseed society. I can only define this as modern day slavery because what has now become important to the employer is to bring the employee (slave) to work andexploit their energy.

As Zimbabweans awaited the announcement of the 2007 Monetary Policy by the Reserve Bank governor Dr. G Gono, the country was filled with an aura of expectations in the air.

I glued my eyes to the TV screen for two solid hours also hoping that something new would be said, but nothing worth the solution to the current crises arose from this rather press conference that the governor addressed.

It was rather an economics history lecture in jargon and semantics to avoid the real problems facing this Southern African Country that is suffering from more than a decade of recession. I certainly knew that the devaluation of the dollar was not going to be much of an issue as many Zimbabweans expected.

The devaluation of the dollar is taboo as far as the Zimbabwe economics is concerned because anyone who attempts to devalue the dollar is an enemy of the ‘’state’’

I believe the main reasons why devaluation will not de addressed publicly is because;

1. The President made his views way before and no one can challenge that.
2. Responsible people who are said to be in charge of the economics of this country are afraid of losing their jobs because they have a case study of Simba Makoni who lost his job for the same reason of trying to steer the hornet’s nest.
3. Devaluing the Zimbabwe dollar is like killing the cash cow. Most ministers and senior government officials get the hard currency at paltry rates to finance their lavish lifestyles. An ordinary Zimbabwean would need Z$4 million to access US$1000 whereas a senior government official would only need Z$250 000 to get the same amount. From this simple calculation it then makes sense to protect the exchange rate at a fixed rate to support the politicians’ lives.

The Reserve bank governor has been reduced to a Semantics Technician based at the Reserve bank. It really took Dr. Gono a cool two hours to tell the nation that the Zimbabwe dollar is not going to be devalued something that he could have done through the local press at very minimum cost.

Dodging the truth is what is killing this economy and a real time approach has to be taken. Suppliers are using the parallel market rates and it has been proven that the government has it’s hands tied as far as price control is concerned and this is not helping the nation.

For the governor to say ‘’something’’ has to be done about smugglers and the little fines they pay is really short of saying that the government has failed. Personally I think the admission of guilty fine of $250 is justified because people have no money and above all it is the law gazetted fine.

The use of the word ‘something’ in a crisis is not good enough because everyone is looking for a definite strategy that revolves around specific parameters. It has become a norm in government addresses to say that corruption is rampant but the real corrupt people still roam the streets and it looks like no one wants to expose them, or is it that exposing them has become useless since they can easily find their way back home.

If this government is serious about tackling corruption, there are questions that have to be addressed first. The issue of too many expensive imported cars on the streets of Zimbabwe when there is an acute shortage of foreign exchange spell something is wrong. Where are these people getting the money when the nation is staving and the government is failing to pay reasonable salaries to doctors and nurses?

The culture of stubbornness and non-caring by some senior government officials should be dealt with first before any meaningful development can be realized in Zimbabwe. There are a bunch of politicians with selfish interests and misplaced priorities leading this country into turmoil. Things are crumpling and some people just chose to ignore the situation. There is a water crisis in Harare and one wonders, the health delivery system is crumpling simply because some individuals cannot come to sense and realize that a doctor and a nurse are critical in health service delivery.

True leaders should learn to be criticized and pluck a leaf from the wisdom of the poor villagers that elected them to power. Some Zimbabwean politicians have reached a stage where they are so confused that they think the people are meant to serve them whereas the opposite is the truth.