Makeke

chelsea

[Kennedy Wandera @KennedyWandera_]

South African protesters, wielding sticks and flags, go door-to-door forcing nationals of other African countries from their homes in Johannesburg, seizing them, and handing them over to police.

"We are walking around doing door to door ​removing foreigners," says a community ​leader, Bongani Msomi, at ⁠the march in Alexandra.

Source: @Reuters.

[Al Jazeera English @AJEnglish]

Anti-migrant protests are escalating in South Africa, with organisers calling for weekly marches demanding deportations. Rights groups and unions warn of rising xenophobia, violence and attacks on foreign-owned businesses.

[Al Jazeera English @AJEnglish]

Locals at an anti-migrant protest wielded sticks in an attempt to evict suspected undocumented residents of Alexandra, South Africa. The protesters were seen harassing and hitting migrants with police nearby.

[Freeman @freemanchari]

Dear Africans. This was just a peaceful sit in to demand reforms from ZANU PF. We have been doing this peacefully for 46 years. Mnangagwa has killed more than 25 000 pple including the genocide in Matabeleland.

[Trevor Ncube @TrevorNcube]

Fascinating. CAB3 becomes law and the only spontaneous celebrations in Zimbabwe broke out in… Parliament. The beneficiaries applauding the benefactors. The elite toasting the elite.

Outside, the masses continued their life of existence — too busy surviving to celebrate their own dispossession.

The anger is palpable. The fear keeps it quiet. For now.

This is not progress. This is not stability. These are the seeds of something worse.

[Jameson Z. Timba @JamesonTimba]

Zimbabwe has entered a new constitutional chapter.
Through the Sungano - Ubumbano Lomphakathi Harare Declaration on Constitutional Restoration, we call upon SADC, the African Union and the international community to stand with the people of Zimbabwe as we pursue the peaceful restoration of constitutional democracy.
The world should support constitutionalism, the rule of law and the sovereign will of the people.

Justice in the Courts. Sovereignty with the People.
#RestoreTheConstitution #Zimbabwe #SADC #AU

[Freeman @freemanchari]

Dear Africans. I know you think we are cowards. You think we have allowed Mnangagwa to rule with impunity. This is is what we face. We have been facing this for the past 45 years. The problem is, we have been doing it peacefully but met with live bullets. SADC & AU are OK with us being killed.

A time will come when we are going to pick matchets and guns and chop each other like what happened in Rwanda. SADC and AU will condemn us as barbarians.

Millions of us have left our country not because we desire to be in your countries. We cannot live under this perpetual suffocation. Now we see that South Africans are tired of us. We don't want to be in your countries. We want to be in Zimbabwe.

We have asked your presidents to restrain this rabid junta led by Mnangagwa but none of them has tried. We tried elections and we all saw what happened. We are at the end of out wits. and about to snap.

If any of you can convince your governments to give us guns and a forest, you will see that we are not cowards.

[The Instigator @Am_Blujay]

If you see this man anywhere in Zimbabwe or South Africa or anywhere please call the police his name is Mark , he killed his wife and two young daughters in the UK and fled

[NDWG Youth Movement @NDWGYouthWing]

Without failure Zimbabwe let us rise up against oppression, it's better death than living under oppression dying slowly everyday... #NoToCAB3

[Hopewell Chin’ono @daddyhope]

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa who has been in power since November 2017, following the military coup that removed President Robert Mugabe. He has now signed into law Constitutional Amendment No. 3, which, among many other things, extends his term of office to 2030, cancels the 2028 elections, extends the presidential term from five years to seven years, and removes the direct election of the President by citizens, transferring that responsibility to Parliament.

This is a massive controversial constitutional change, one that would ordinarily require a referendum. However, the President and his advisers have refused to subject these changes to a referendum. That fact alone renders the entire process contestable and places a dark cloud of illegitimacy over his presidency beyond 2028, when his term of office was originally supposed to end.

But this crisis will not wait until 2028. It began the moment he signed Constitutional Amendment No. 3 into law, as opponents of the Bill which is now law have already declared the process illegal because there was no referendum.

The real challenge facing President Mnangagwa is not so much the opposition, which he has effectively dismantled with the assistance of opposition leaders who have allegedly been bought or co-opted. The real challenge is the economy.

As Bill Clinton famously said, “It’s the economy, stupid.” The economy is what will create a wave of political discontent between now and whenever he eventually leaves office, assuming he does not die in office.

I have seen some of my South African friends mocking Zimbabweans over this development and saying it is a Zimbabwean issue that Zimbabweans must resolve themselves. One can only say that if one is ignorant of the interconnectedness of our region and the ripple effects that this constitutional change is likely to create.

South Africa’s illegal immigration crisis has been authored, in part, by the misgovernance in Zimbabwe, which successive South African governments and the African National Congress have tolerated and, at times, enabled. When the economy deteriorates in Zimbabwe, desperate people cross into South Africa by any means necessary in search of jobs and opportunities.

This should not be viewed as a Zimbabwean crisis alone. It is a regional crisis, one that has the potential to create political and social turbulence throughout Southern Africa. History has taught us that whenever there is a crisis in Zimbabwe, South Africa bears much of the burden.

But this post is not about South Africa. It is about Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans.

The culture of bootlicking leaders and hero-worshipping politicians cuts across Zimbabwean society, both in the ruling party and in the opposition. Part of the reason why the opposition has been emasculated by Emmerson Mnangagwa is because citizens continue to place blind faith in leaders who have delivered very little.
Those leaders continue to sell hope to the people, even when many Zimbabweans know that some of them have been captured or compromised.

We saw this decadence in the Parliament of Zimbabwe. Opposition Members of Parliament voted with ZANUPF. Only 42 voted against the Constitutional Amendment Bill. The rest supported it. That is a reflection of the deep crisis within the opposition itself.

Unfortunately, many Zimbabweans mistakenly think that Zimbabwe’s problems are exclusively a ZANUPF problem. They are not. They are a Zimbabwean problem that Zimbabweans themselves must resolve, and not sit and watch.

As long as Zimbabweans continue to hero-worship personalities instead of supporting ideas, institutions and principles, the crisis will never go away. There are people with ideas and solutions for Zimbabwe, but they are not popular enough. Populism has derailed the opposition and made it ineffective in pushing back against ZANUPF’s misgovernance.

The signing of Constitutional Amendment No. 3 into law is, in my view, the beginning of a new phase of resistance, assuming events themselves do not overtake any organic resistance to Mnangagwa’s rule.

Zimbabwe today is a hopelessly divided society. People are fighting one another, and there is little national unity. President Mnangagwa could have secured his legacy by uniting the country and fixing the economy. Instead, it is evident that his administration remains adrift when it comes to economic management.

This is, therefore, a moment for Zimbabweans to reflect on what they want for their country and how they intend to achieve it.

For neighbouring countries, particularly South Africa, this is not Zimbabwe’s problem alone. According to the South African government, around 70% of women who give birth at Musina Hospital are Zimbabwean. You cannot simply turn them away. They will continue coming because the Zimbabwean government has failed to build a healthcare system capable of serving its people.

An estimated 2,500 Zimbabwean women die every year while giving birth because of inadequate maternal healthcare facilities. The largest hospital in Zimbabwe still relies on a single maternity theatre built in 1977 by the Ian Smith government. That alone is a devastating indictment of the state of public healthcare in Zimbabwe, and a metaphor for the state of affairs.

With unemployment estimated at over 95% in the formal and informal sectors combined, it is not surprising that Zimbabweans are prepared to risk their lives crossing crocodile-infested rivers in the Limpopo to reach South Africa. They will continue doing so.

No amount of anti-immigration marches in South Africa will stop this reality. One either understands how crises create migration flows, or one lives under the illusion and delusion that Zimbabweans can somehow be prevented from seeking survival elsewhere.

As we speak, many large-scale farms in Limpopo employ significant numbers of undocumented Zimbabwean workers. If those workers were suddenly to disappear overnight, the consequences for agricultural production and food prices would be enormous.

This is not simply my opinion as an analyst or journalist. I have spoken to numerous farmers in Limpopo. I am a farmer myself and have access to many people within the agricultural sector, including some who are political actors in South Africa.

The reality is that complex regional problems cannot be solved by slogans, social media noise or emotional outbursts. They require honest conversations, competent governance and courageous leadership on both sides of the Limpopo.

As this law comes into effect, many people must reflect on the roles they played, directly or indirectly, in bringing Zimbabwe to this point.

Vice President General Constantino Chiwenga was one of the leading proponents of the idea that President Mnangagwa could and should rule for as long as he wished, as he stated in the video I have attached below. Today, he finds himself effectively locked out of any constitutional path to the presidency.

The opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa, also bears a significant share of responsibility. He effectively dismembered the opposition by getting rid of key allies who brought talents and skills that he himself did not possess. He dismantled leadership structures and ran the opposition without a constitution, creating an environment that enabled ZANUPF to infiltrate the opposition through the political charlatan Sengezo Tshabangu, whose actions were aided by Professor Jonathan Moyo’s ideas.

Ultimately, the supporters of these two men must not live in denial by blaming everyone else while refusing to examine their own role in what has happened.

There is nothing contained in this constitutional amendment, which is now law, that was not predicted. Analysts who warned that these developments would occur were ridiculed. They were demonised on social media, insulted and called names by opposition supporters. That abuse continues to this very day. It cuts across the political divide, both in ZANUPF and in the opposition, where leaders deploy and sponsor people to attack anyone who raises uncomfortable truths about the realities of life in Zimbabwe.

One cannot help but wonder whether some of those who have spent years attacking people who brought genuine issues to the table have themselves been manipulated or even indirectly serving the interests of ZANUPF, because it beggars belief that people can be so self-contradictory and self-destructive in the manner in which Zimbabwean politics has unravelled since 2022.

In 2021, through Constitutional Amendment No. 2, the running mate clause was removed. That amendment effectively dismantled the constitutional mechanism that many believed would guarantee General Chiwenga’s succession within ZANUPF. The running mate provision had been an important part of the constitutional architecture established by the 2013 Constitution, which was negotiated during the Government of National Unity and endorsed by almost 95% of Zimbabweans in a referendum.

The Vice President remained silent. He was warned. I was among those who argued that the removal of the running mate clause was the beginning of what I called a “royal presidency”, one in which President Mnangagwa would accumulate so much power that he could potentially remain in office until his death.

All the mistakes that have been made, whether through deliberate action, political expediency or sheer ignorance, have brought Zimbabwe to where it is today.

Have opposition supporters finally understood that ideas matter more than bootlicking and hero-worshipping political leaders? I do not know. Their reaction to what is happening in Zimbabwe today will answer that question.

Have members of ZANUPF who feel aggrieved by President Mnangagwa’s actions now come to understand that when people speak about constitutionalism, accountability and good governance, they are not necessarily being anti-ZANUPF? I do not know. Time will tell.

My thoughts, as I end this article, are with the millions of Zimbabweans who remain trapped inside Zimbabwe with little or no prospect of meaningful economic opportunities and who are unable to live normal lives in the way that citizens in functional countries do.

My thoughts are also with those citizens who spent years bootlicking and hero-worshipping politicians, unknowingly aiding this process and helping to create the very circumstances in which they now find themselves: unemployed, economically excluded and without hope for a better future.

And my thoughts are especially with those who cannot leave.
As the Jamaican reggae artist Buju Banton poignantly said in his song Untold Stories: “Those who can run, run away, but what about those who can’t? They will have to stay.”

That, perhaps, is the greatest tragedy of Zimbabwe: those with the means often leave, while the poorest and most vulnerable are left behind to endure the consequences of political failure, economic collapse and broken leadership. Their suffering should never be forgotten.

[Freeman @freemanchari]

For those looking for the Khampepe report which declared that Zimbabwe's elections in 2002 were neither free nor fair & Mr Mbeki hid the report here it is https://t.co/aqGOKyNV52

[Freeman @freemanchari]

📌📌📌📌

[Thabani Mpofu @adv_fulcrum]

We now have CAA3. In the words of Zvobgo, it is “the most calculated and deliberate attack on our liberties.” Its promulgation opens the door to, and indeed ushers in, another wave of challenges. These challenges will be pursued in many ways. We shall not abdicate. We shall not be cowed. When the motherland calls on men and women to stand up and be counted, we shall be such men and women. Our contract cannot be rewritten by a few. Our destiny cannot be determined by coin. We shall fall only by natural causes, not by the devices of a few corrupt men. So help us God.

[Youngerson Yahwe Matete 🇿🇼 @MateteYoung]

We do not recognize Mnangagwa, he is illegitimate. The people of Zimbabwe must unite and remove him !

[Kgoshigadi TT 🇿🇦 @Kgoshigadi_TT]

Bo Jacinta act like uncivilized animals

[Man’s NOT Barry Roux @AdvoBarryRoux]

According to Phakelumthakathi Ndabandaba South Africa can pay every South African R1 million every year for the rest of their lives. What is Phakelumthakathi Ndabandaba smoking?

[Zwelinzima Vavi @Zwelinzima1]

Look carefully at these pictures.

On 30 June there will be no march to the mansions.

There will be no march to the luxury estates.

There will be no march to the golf courses.

There will be no march to the beachfront suburbs.

Migrants — documented or undocumented — living in those wealthy suburbs have nothing to fear.

Nobody will be knocking on their gates.

Nobody will be dragging them from their homes.

Nobody will be demanding to see their papers.

The rich will sleep peacefully on 29 June.

They will sleep peacefully on 30 June.

And they will wake up on 1 July exactly as they did before.

But in the townships and informal settlements there will be fear.

The targets will not be the rich.

The targets will be the poorest of the poor.

The migrant living in a shack.

The refugee running a spaza shop.

The domestic worker.

The gardener.

The security guard.

The construction worker.

The unemployed young person trying to survive.

And when it is all over:

No jobs will have been created.

No factory will have reopened.

No mine will have reopened.

No pothole will have been repaired.

No school still using pit toilets will have been fixed.

No hospital will have been repaired.

No clinic will have received more nurses.

No municipality will suddenly work.

No family will escape poverty.

No inequality will disappear.

The rich will remain rich.

The poor will remain poor.

And once again, the victims will be people living in shacks while those living behind high walls, electric fences and private security watch from a safe distance.

The anger is real.

The unemployment is real.

The poverty is real.

The inequality is real.

But the targets are wrong.

The poor are being mobilised against the poor while the real causes of the crisis remain untouched.

[Obert Dube_The African Poet @obertdube_poet]

Tazviona Moyo from Binga Sikomena is appealing for money to do pharmacy coarse.$500 a semester for 1 year.She is a maid in Mberengwa but with 8 "O" levels including Maths, Eng,Science .Also 4 points at A Level & she did sciences. Her #[phone].
Pliz retweet this message.

[Hopewell Chin’ono @daddyhope]

2 days ago, Madzibaba VeShanduko appealed for financial assistance after spending 8 months in prison for a crime he did not commit & enduring torture.
You responded. We have so far raised £1,989. Thank you.
Please RETWEET so that others can see the link 👇🏿
https://t.co/cWRXPoFO2X

[Sue Nyathi @SueNyathi]

For those looking to purchase a copy of #ThePolygamist online, here are the links. 1. Amazon
https://t.co/3izQjVmBM4