Threat of a Nation Address

 Much Ado About Nothing

The state of the nation address by Nelson Chamisa turned up to what we have expected. We have the usual empty but potential dangerous threat of public disorder and a call to his "stupid" followers to break the law. This has been said and been done before., and we expect nothing to come out of the "threat" of the nation address!!

 I would like to familiarise you with the famous English playwright William Shakespeare play called "Much Ado About Nothing". In this play, a couple is in love and a lot of drama and mischief is done to destroy the relationship. People are arrested, people are confused, some people are lied to in this well-written play. The twist in this play is that the couple will marry at the end despite all the chicanery and noises.

The play is parallel to the life of the MDC Alliance and its leader Nelson Chamisa. He started with nothing in 2018 when he declared himself the de facto leader of a non-existent party. He went on to contest the elections and come out with nothing.  He orchestrated numerous demonstrations and he comes out with nothing all the time!! Nelson Chamisa's political journey has been about nothing!!

Empty Threats

In his address, Nelson Chamisa is threatening a sitting government by telling that he is ready to govern and urge his supporters to follow what he calls a "New Zimbabwe Blueprint." The so-called blueprint is just a list of empty threats of pending and imagined civil disobedience. How can you be ready to govern if your party is haemorrhaging members?

 Nelson Chamisa actual state in his address that his non-existent party will create "pockets of resistance". These are empty but very dangerous threats. It is in Nelson Chamisa best interest to form a party and attract followers so that he can win the 2023 elections and govern.

Fading lies 

In his speech, he calls his former party the MDC-T, a government-controlled opposition and I believe his imagined party, the MDC Alliance, is independent of any form of control. Members are defecting and leaving the party in droves to ZANUpf and to MDC-T. The MDC Alliance is fading into the horizon. Nelson Chamisa permanent campaign of lies about a stolen 2018 election and illegitimacy of President Emmerson Mnangagwa has failed to impress both his handlers and his supporters.

Context and Content

Finally after all is said and done, the speech can be discounted to call for recognition and to attract attention. The content of the speech was to threaten the general populace by calling for civil disobedience. The context, in this case, was to create in our minds a " twin crises' of the COVID19 pandemic and to cover up the exodus of MDC Alliance supporters to MDC-T and Zanu-PF.

Zimbabwe awaits Mr Nelson Chamisa next list of threats!!

The Chimurenga counter-revolutionaries:

 I am just a blogger and I do not want to be confused with those award-winning journalists. I write to free my memory and to express the feelings and opinions of people around me. What l hear or read l always want to debate and interrogate its historical context. I believe nothing can happen for no reason....and reason rests in the past.

To put my idea to test today l want to explain why a USA award-winning journalist like Hopewell Chin'ono is unemployable in the United States as a journalist but can play James Bond against his own home country government. I want to explain why a whole Professor Alex T Magaisa spent his time writing anti-government diatribe packed with half-truths and has the cheeky to call it the Big Saturday Read. 

The reason for both men attitude towards the Government of Zimbabwe is historical. We should understand why Hopewell Chin'ono would like to attack Jah Prayzah on social media. We must understand why Alex T Magaisa would attack Morgan Tsvanirayi's son on social media. The two are not only seeking attention on social media but the attacks the reflects self-hatred seeded in them by white supremacists associations that sponsors them.

Hopewell Chin'ono hatred of the state emanates from his upbringing. He is the proverbial Zimbabwean born person who went to the diaspora after independence. He came back only to find out some of his contemporaries had moved on in life. The contemporaries had more money, political power and had fitted well in the post-independent Zimbabwe. You can feel the bitterness in his writing and documentaries.

Alex T Magaisa is just like Hopewell Chin'ono and more. Here is an academic who has been here and there, and he believes he knows it all. He comes back in 2009 to be a special advisor to the then Prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai of the failed Government of National Unity. Magaisa was a total failure at his task as Morgan Tsvangirai's advisor that the MDC literally broke up during his tenure. Magaisa had no option after MDC lost the 2013 election, but to put his tail between his legs and pack his bags.

What we have in the two gentlemen of Zimbabwe origin is the deep  Rhodesian narrative in their writings and conduct. How can a journalist like Hopewell Chin'ono specialise in espionage on behalf of people who have sanctions against our country? How have we allowed him to call sanctions-busting corruption? Why have we not questioned his sources of information? Is it not crazy that the USA will award him another prize for excellent journalism for his antics of regular visits to Chikurubi Maximum Prison?

On Alex Magaisa, I have noticed he spent some weeks writing his so-called  Big Saturday Read trying to discredit the land reform in general and the Chimurenga Revolution in particular. He rubbished the whole land reform program and even came up with a list of people he wanted to "expose".

 The likes of the two are what l call intellectual bankrupt academics.  These are people who believe that they have a monopoly of the knowledge of not only our political system but of the destiny of our nation. In reality, these are counter-revolutionaries who have sold their souls to the white supremacists. 

I believe this quote accurately describes the two to the point; "They are harbingers of hate, violence and intolerance. They are just misguided and violent thugs and hooligans who possess neither a solid ideological grounding nor a viable alternative to governance. They belong in jail"  said Obert Gutu on Twitter. I think following the #Demloot video every Zimbabwean knows where Hopewell stands and this dovetails with Obert Gutu's description above!!!

I have to go back to history to conclude this post. Chimurenga is our history. In the history of the Chimurenga revolution,  counter-revolutionaries have come and gone, our revolution has not stopped as the will of the people is supreme. You cannot stop a revolution by writing rubbish or by posting one-liners on social media. The people power lives beyond the pen and keyboard. It is out there with the electorate.

Finally, I would like to quote John Lewis, a disciple of Martin Luther jr and the USA civil rights activist who passed away in 2020 but had recently said, "Ours is not the struggle of one day, one week, or one year. Ours is not the struggle of one judicial appointment or presidential term. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part.'

Counter -revolutionaries cannot stop the Chimurenga revolution, they can only delay our progress!!!

COVID 19 for The Reckless, The Ignorant and The Innocent

 The Reckless

The Covid19 pandemic is reeking havoc through our communities and some of us has been reckless, deliberately spreading it by action, word and conduct. 

 

I was surprised by the comments of the MDC alliance leader Nelson Chamisa when the lockdown was announced. He made some reckless comments as he described the government call for level four lockdown as aimed against poor people.He goes further to say government should have consulted stakeholders before imposing the lockdown and reading between the lines he see the lockdown as political motivated. The statement reflects not only Nelson Chamisa's naivety but may actual be reflection of the common and uninformed sections of our people. The recklessness is born out of ignorance of the disease which we are dealing with. 

Law enforcement agencies has been reckless in allowing people to pass on roadblocks without letters of authority. They have been reckless to allow illegal passenger vehicles to pass in exchange of bribes. The passengers have been reckless to board unsafe and unsanitary vehicles. We have been a reckless nation and we must pay the price. We will pay the prices for these action by the deaths of our family members and our fellow citizens.

People have ignored government call to stay at home.People are not wearing masks. People are not practising social distance or observing the physical distances in crowds...some people are refusing or avoiding sanitisation.People are just being recklesss and we as Zimbabwe will pay the price of this recklessness.

The Ignorant 

There is a lot of misinformation about Covid19. A quick browse on social media posts and the ignorant content will surprise you. There are wild stories of the origin of  COVID19,  there are thousands of homemade remedies and even fake stories of survivors. It is this ignorance which is helping to spread the virus 

It is true that crowds or any gathering are super spreaders of COVID19.  We have  ignorantly held parties,conducted private lessons, attended funerals and even held music shows , like the Chilspot guys from Mbare. It is this level of ignorance that government must target all its  efforts.

Law enforcement  agencies must intensify their efforts in the best way they can in order to bring this disease under control.

The Innocent 

Lastly we have the innocent children amongst us. We should protect our children from the disease. Schools are super spreaders and teachers who are conducting lessons of any kind must be prosecuted. Parents who send their children should be prosecuted, as they are no different from the Mbare trio.

 

In conclusion we have to change our attitude towards this disease, we have to treat and see the disease as an enemy. We need to hide from it...by staying at home ....masking up ....and let us give it the respect it deserves. Let us fear it and let us fear death. Covid19 is a death sentence! !

Mbuya Nehanda, The Bones and the Statue Rising

 My people, I mean Black Zimbabweans just love to display publicly their self-hate on social media. I just love the discussions around the Mbuya Nehanda statue! Mbuya Nehanda is a spirit medium who has been with the Shona people for centuries. It is a fact that she has come out in many woman's forms and shapes over  Shona generations., but alas, some enlightened middle-class gutter journalists and social media warriors think they have a monopoly and copyright to the spirit medium image.

Our people feel they should contribute to the shape and form of Mbuya Nehanda since she is part of our heritage and a national symbol and  I am glad that we are talking. It is those that would like to silence the debate by making as much noise as possible that I hate. This is not a political distraction as some of our detractors say but a national narrative that we should pursue to its very end.

The artist, David Mutasa, who was commissioned to do the job has done an excellent job. He has captured the Mbuya Nehanda in his African and Manyika mind. What we expected was a very ugly and old Mbuya Nehanda....something that looks like  Gagool in H. Rider Haggard's book. As I have alluded earlier the Mbuya Nehandas has manifested her spirit in women of different names, shapes and sizes. the artist has done justice to all manifestations of an intergenerational image of Mbuya Nehanda.

  It is the colonial hangover in our people that make us believe that an ugly Nehanda is an appropriate statue. The colonialist has done a perfect job of showing us a tortured, raped,  and broken woman. That is what the white settler wanted the African person to believe is Mbuya Nehanda. The only colonial photograph of Nehanda as a prisoner does not do justice to her beauty and to her powers. The image does not do justice to her legacy and heroic works.

The image of an incarcerated Nehanda has been etched into our psyche so much so that some amongst us refuse to believe the possibility that she could have been a young, beautiful, well embodied and strong African woman   Let us Zimbabwean refuse to remember the last image we have of Nehanda.It was taken after she has been brutalised in prison by the white Rhodesian settlers. Let us remember Mbuya Nehanda as an African spirit that fought the colonialists in all the Chimurengas of past years. Let us remember Mbuya Nehanda in the present as we fight the counter-revolutionaries of Chimurenga.

Mbuya Nehanda still lives amongst us today.! She told the hangman that her bones shall rise and that has come to pass. The denial of this fact is the centre of this debate, not the form or shape of the statue. We have to overcome the raw self- hate pumped into us by evil white supremacists for over a century.

Aluta continua

The Bond Note And Forex Market

SOCIAL MEDIA TWIST

 Panic buying, hoarding of foreign currency and the attempt to burn the bond notes was a direct result of social media abuse and foreign-owned interests in commerce and industry who have been opponents of the bond notes.Here Zimbabweans learnt that social media can influence consumer behaviour negatively and positively. This lesson has also panicked government to set up a ministry to mitigate effects of social media abuse.

FEAR AND PANIC
Every adult in Zimbabwe was affected in one way or another by the foreigner's attack on the Zimbabwean dollar. It is the fear of the repeat of 2008 that panicked the public into the hoarding frenzy and the subsequent hike in prices. The panic attack was triggered by professional political agitators on social media.

 Zimbabweans are a gullible lot when it comes to anything in print and the internet. Thanks to the high literacy rate, the political agitators are taking advantage. High literacy rate does not grow in tandem with financial literacy. The lesson learnt here is that financial illiteracy is a big problem and there is need for educating the masses

SYSTEMIC ABUSE

The fear of a repeat of 2008 keeps us in bondage and helps to perpetuate the very system that you are fighting against. Foreign-owned and controlled industry, the underground economy and the paid politically agitators have continued to fight against the bond notes. It is again this time there is bull run on the stock market and people are trying hard to ride on the dual listing of Old Mutual. It is not a coincidence that Old Mutual has a finger in all the listed companies. It is the benefactor of the panic buying and the attack of the bond notes.The lesson learnt here is that the foreigner owned companies that are systematically abusing our people and our economy.


LAUGHING LESSON
 On a lighter note, our conspiracy theorist buddies believe that last month's panic buying of everything was instigated by the powers that be. They say the move was to get people to bring out all that cash they been keeping out of the system. The bulk buying did indeed put money into the formal sector, but it is what the informal sector is doing with the money that the Reserve bank should ask this sector.

Still, on a lighter note, Robert Mugabe did get credit for the stabilisation of both the prices and the rates. it was said as soon as he got off the plane from New York .the prices and money rates went down.I observed it but I could not link his arrival with the fall of the prices and money rates.

THE LESSONS LEARNT

 We have learnt as Zimbabweans that just because the rates and price have stabilised, and the money changers have disappeared it doesn't mean the problem has been solved. Our fears as Zimbabweans is that are our threats are external. Our government, industry, commerce and the ordinary people should come together and work to exorcise the demon of sanctions on our country.

My 2021 Budget Proposals

 Resource Tax

Zimbabwe was once run by a company called British South African Company. The company sole purpose was to exploit resources and export them to feed the British manufacturing industries in the UK. After the 1922 referendum which was about joining the BSAC territories to South Africa, the company split its interests into various companies like Anglo American Corporation,  Lonrho, Meikles, British American Tobacco and various other entities.

The above narrative still stands. The surrogate companies under the British South Africa Company are still exploiting the Zimbabwean resources and feeding into the British economy at our disadvantage.

The following resources need to be taxed on point of export as the BSAC surrogates have been under-invoicing and resulting in serious revenue leakages.

1.Tea......per tonne US$100
2.Timber (indigenous +exotic) cubic metre US $100
3 Fruits
4 Horticulture
5. Game animals
6. Game meat
7. Leather and hides.


Motor Vehicle tax
I feel the duty on second-hand cars should be paid only on vehicles which are more than ten years. My take is that only individuals imported vehicles should be exempted while as car dealers should pay a prohibitive duty of 100%.

Fuel tax
Taking into consideration the scrapping of duty on second-hand vehicle, the government should charge about 15% of the cost of fuel as tax.

Industrial property and land tax
Local authorities must be allowed to charge tax on all unlicensed and unproductive industrial properties and land.


Infrastructure  Direct Rebates
A 100% tax rebate must be granted to firms in industry and commerce on infrastructure development. The rebates can be claimed after certification and inspection by the District Development Fund.

1. Access roads
2. Pavement repairs
3 . Dams on farms
4 . Irrigation equipment
5. Road Construction equipment
6.Electrification of adjoining rural areas.

Grain Incentives

A premium of 25% on international maize meal price should be paid to all farmers who deliver to the Grain Marketing Board. This premium should be fixed for the next five years.

ReplyForward

The Elusive Zimdollar

The forex auction by the RBZ has slowed down the runaways rate of Zimdollar versus the USA dollar. The effect of the government policy on the errant and arrogant twins of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange and mobile money agents seems to have taken the steam of the black market rollercoaster.

The forex auctions have unbelievably mirrored the foreign currency demands of industry and commerce.  The forex auctions have taken the voodoo analysts and bush economists by surprise. These voodoo analysts and bush economists are already claiming the auctions are rigged.....

The Multinationals Dilemma

  Multinationals particularly those in the retail sector are still putting a premium on the Zimdollar prices in an effort to channel forex from the formal economy into their greedy and dirty hands. This is evidence of their role in the fueling of the black market. 

The Multinationals which l have dealt with OK, Pick and Pay and FedEx tends to have a lot of exchange rates in effect. They are not charging the official exchange rates. 

These firms are buying the US$   using a rate of 81 but pricing their products using the black market rate of about 100 ZWL.

The Government and the RBZ Financial Intelligence Unit should take action against Ok, Pick and Pay and FedEx to mention a few who are charging a premium on their ZWL prices. 

My experience was with FedEx who is charging US$5 and $600Zw for overnight delivery.....it is cheaper to pay in US$  than to use the Zim dollar.

Competition and Tariff Commission

The above practice of putting a premium on Zimdollar price is an unfair trade practice. The Competition and Tariff Commission should play a proactive role and penalise the entities that are caring out the unfair trade practice. Policy coordination between the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and Competition and Tariff Commission is not clear. There is a grey area of the policy here..it seems as forex control, inflation-fighting and money supply are the preserve of Treasury  (the Ministry of Finance and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.) This is wrong as there are departments which should be fighting this unfair trade practice starting with the Consumer Council, Competition and Tariff Commission and the police to mention just a few.

 We as consumers although we have identified the unfair trade practice we do not know where to report. The RBZ has a toothless department called the Financial Intelligence Unit whose only interface with the public is a WhatsApp number which is inactive and useless. I speak from experience.

 This pattern of activity by industry and commerce is outrightly illegal, but the grey area of the RBZ policy on the pricing of goods in Zimdollar and forex make it even more difficult for other government departments to enforce or to make legal and regulatory decisions to protect the general public.

The Minister of Finance and the central bankers must give directions through statutory instruments so that any given illegal activity on pricing is prosecutable.RBZ should authorize given government departments to enforce its interests and priorities in the economy.

 As it stands, the forex auctions have worked well, but it is being entirely ignored by industry and commerce. This is going to undermine, in the long run, the confidence of those entities that are participating in the forex auctions. 

The Ministry of Finance should engage authorities and actors' for the forex auctions to have an impact on the lives of all Zimbabweans.