Gimmickry for Zanu PF read the flyer by ZAPU Chairman {Click Here}
Nowadays in Zimbabwe a day hardly passes without one being pummelled with the ruling party’s Vision 2030 propaganda. Every state-controlled media outlet is engrossed with this mantra, without a clear understanding of its meaning, origin or intentions. They have, together with the desperate electorate, been deceived by ZANU PF and President Emerson Mnangagwa into believing that Vision 2030 is a brainchild of his failing dictatorship, when in actual fact it is derived from the United Nations’ universal global development agenda as adopted at the historic UN Summit in September 2015 and came into force on 1 January 2016.
ZAPU would like to put it on record that Vision 2030 is not a brainchild of President Mnangagwa or his ZANU PF party. The components, adopted as the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) were never formulations of the Mnangagwa administration but were copied from the September 2015 UN Summit resolutions for a global sustainable development agenda. Trying to own this vision by Mr Mnangagwa and ZANU PF is not only a sign of deception, but also lays bare the inadequacies and bankruptcy of his regime on policymaking. It shows that the mediocre party and its president are not in touch with the realities on the ground, where over 90 percent of the population lives in abject poverty and neglect.
The ever-failing party, unable to meet the most basic of its mandate, now uses the UN development goals to manipulate the desperate electorate and also as political cover to violate the constitution to extend Mr Mnangagwa’s rule beyond the constitutional limit of two five-year terms. This is despite the fact that Mr Mnangagwa was not president both in 2015 when the UN resolutions were made, and in 2016 when they became enforceable. Only the gullible and naïve will be convinced by the ZANU PF propaganda machine that Mnangagwa is both the formulator and anointed implementer of Vision 2030.
The calendar year of 2030 will come upon us, with or without ZANU PF and Mr Mnangagwa. The UN Vision 2030 SDGs will always demand implementation regardless of which government will be governing in Zimbabwe. However it has become apparent that President Mnangagwa and indeed ZANU PF are not focused on the vision but only on the extension of Mr Mnangagwa’s rule beyond the constitutional limit. It has been turned into political capital for violation and shredding of the constitution. No wonder Mr Mnangagwa, who has both the mandate to preserve and protect the constitution as the country’s president, as well as the authoritative power to stop the madness within his party, is tight-lipped on ending the bloodletting and the impending violation of our country’s supreme law.
President Mnangagwa pays lip service to constitutionalism but only for his personal gain, not national or constitutional interests. The electorate dealing with economic and social desperation daily, is also blind to the fact that the universal development goals which apply to all UN member states, primarily target to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind. Therefore, only a few are able to take note of the hypocrisy associated with this mantra, now cannon fodder for the state propaganda machine. Mr Mnangagwa, who today seeks to present himself as the architect of the 17 SDGs that were summarized as Vision 2030 by the United Nations in 2015, ignores all the fundamental measures that were promulgated to end poverty, inequality as well as inclusion of everyone in our greater society. These measures include universal access to quality education, infrastructural development, public healthcare, social security, human rights as well as the fight against corruption.
Instead of the above we have witnessed the opposite, since the 2017 military coup that brought Mr Mnangagwa into power. The public education sector is in near collapse with teachers, parents and learners all struggling with incapacitation. Public healthcare facilities designed during the colonial era are now death traps, with their infrastructure derelict and in a sorry state of disrepair. Corruption which has become endemic within the government, is promoted and celebrated instead of being punished. Collusion between state actors and cartels have created gigantic monopolies with unfettered access to all sectors of the economy. Tenders deigned to genuinely empower hardworking local entrepreneurs are all taken up by the connected cartels and proxies for state actors. Real economic empowerment has not cascaded down to the masses.
In light of all this, ZAPU would like to implore citizens not to be hoodwinked by Mr Mnangagwa and ZANU PF into believing that the year 2030 will change our lives for the better. Our lives will certainly be worse off under ZANU PF because the party has not shown any willingness or capacity to lead an agenda for sustainable development in Zimbabwe. Their counterfeit vision will quietly evaporate just like former President Robert Mugabe’s Vision 2020. From January 2016 when the 17 SDGs became enforceable, not even one has been realized under the late President Mugabe and his army-assisted successor Mr Mnangagwa. What makes citizens think President Mnangagwa will overnight be able to implement what he has failed in a decade? After all, it is only half a decade to 2030 as we speak. Asivuleni amehlo. Ngativhurei maziso. Let us open our eyes.