SOMETIME back during the late former President Robert Mugabe’s era, I wrote an open letter to him demanding a dignified exit for him, because he had failed to make Zimbabwe, a country which many people perished for.
By Fanuel Chinowaita,Our Reader
Today, I want to make the same demand to President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Mnangagwa cannot be exonerated from all the mistakes which Mugabe made. They were together when they messed up.
When Mnangagwa got into power through a November 2017 coup, he promised to reform. He begged the nation to treat him differently from Mugabe.
We gave him the first 100 days, nothing changed. After the rigged 2018 election, Zimbabwe became hell again.
Mnangagwa proves to be a worse dictator. It’s clear that he is the author of all what we faced since 1980 up to date. I, therefore, demand him to go.
The same letter I wrote to Mugabe is the same letter I want Mnangagwa to read and do. He has to go.
Wherever there’s Mugabe, it’s Mnangagwa now.
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It started with the land reform, but Mugabe ended up blaming sanctions. In 2000, Mugabe and his Zanu PF embarked on the fast-track land reform programme, where they forcefully took farming land from productive white farmers and doled it out to appease Zanu PF supporters and war veterans.
During this period, many white farmers left all their properties running for safety in neighbouring countries like Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia. Yes, the regime called it land reform programme, but with how it was conducted, it qualifies to be called land grabbing programme.
The land grabbing programme led to the reduction in the delivery of agricultural produce to the Grain Marketing Board and this, in turn, led to hunger and starvation in Zimbabwe.
The indigenisation programme followed and this led to the closure of many foreign-owned companies. The policy called for 49-51% shareholding in favour of Zimbabweans. This led to about 90% unemployment rate.
Mugabe thought that he was redirecting economic priorities to serve the whole population rather than a small white section of the population, yet he was creating unemployment and gross poverty among ordinary Zimbabweans.
He replaced the once British-owned companies with the Chinese and Indians who failed to maintain the employment rate which was there before, but instead, chased more workers.
In 2013, Mugabe was accused of rigging the presidential elections and introduced the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZimAsset) policy paper, which would be implemented from October 2013 to December 2018. ZimAsset was crafted to achieve sustainable development and social equity anchored on indigenisation, empowerment and employment creation which would be largely propelled by the judicious exploitation of the country’s abundant human and natural resources.
Unfortunately, the blueprint is now like toilet tissue because Zanu PF and Mugabe failed to implement it. The 2,2 million jobs which he promised to create have turned into 2,2 million more vendors.
Zimbabweans will not forget about US$15 billion pilfered from the Chiadzwa diamond fields. The above led to where we are today and the people of Zimbabwe are demanding a dignified exit for Mnangagwa as well because he, like Mugabe, has not managed to solve the problems and bring health, education and shelter to all Zimbabweans.
