Today is September 4 and exactly a year ago to the day, on the 4th of September 2023, Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa was inaugurated for his second term following a discredited election that was deemed not credible, illegitimate unfree and unfair by almost all credible observer missions.
Even SADC, which ED now chairs, issued a damning report in which it said the Zimbabwe election had fallen short of the standards enshrined in the country’s electoral laws, in the Constitution of Zimbabwe and in the SADC guidelines governing the conduct of democratic elections in the region.
When the election results were announced on Saturday, 26 August 2023, many Zimbabweans had expected a long narrative from ZEC to explain the context of the election, especially why the urban areas had been starved of ballot papers at the crucial hour and to provide actual poll figures, including figures per polling station.
To this day, we are still to get the figures per polling station from ZEC.
And Zimbabweans were shocked when ZEC nocturnally announced the results at midnight. In a mere six minutes at midnight on 26 August last year, the election management body had done the opening prayer, the opening remarks and had announced what it said were the Presidential election results.
All in 360 seconds, perhaps the shortest electoral orgasm in history!
But on 4 September 2023, exactly a year to the day and at his coronation that was snubbed by the majority of SADC Heads of State and that resembled a robber’s conference at the National Sports Stadium, Mr Mnangagwa cut a forlorn figure as he mumbled through his inauguration speech whose litany of lies I will list down in this treatise.
Indeed, at that inauguration on this day last year, Mnangagwa told several lies.
Today, on the first anniversary of his second coronation, I revisit that speech to point out just 12 of the many lies that he told to bemused Zimbabweans and the international community.
Lie number 1: We ran a free and fair election
The first lie that ED told the world at his inauguration was that the country had just held a free, fair, transparent and credible poll.
He commended Zimbabwe for holding what he called a “successful, peaceful, free, fair, transparent and credible harmonised election.”
Verdict
Nothing could be further from the truth.
As confirmed by observer missions, notably the AU and the SADC observer mission reports, the election was far from credible.
Ballot papers had been delayed by more than nine hours in the urban strongholds of the opposition in a hugely flawed poll that the regional body said fell short in meeting the tenets of the country’s electoral laws, the Zimbabwean Constitution and the prudent electoral standards in the SADC guidelines governing democratic elections.
By stating that the country had just held a credible election, Mr Mnangagwa had simply told the world a blatant lie.
Lie Number 2: The will of the people will be respected
Mr Mnangagwa lied to the world at his inauguration that Zimbabweans had freely expressed themselves in the election and their will would be respected.
Verdict
Mr Mnangagwa, his party and his government did not respect the will of the people as he promised at his inauguration.
Using a paid surrogate, one Sengezo Tshabangu, the regime went on to undo the will of the people by recalling hordes of elected MPs and councillors.
For parliamentarians, the plot was to give Zanu PF a two thirds majority which they had lost in the election.
Lie Number 3: This is an auspicious occasion
Mr Mnangagwa described his coronation and the run up to it as a grand and auspicious occasion.
Verdict
The inauguration itself was far from being an auspicious occasion as it was held amid a lockdown of massive fear and intimidation throughout the country.
One then newly-elected CCC councillor, Womberai Nhende had just been abducted and found bludgeoned while a month before, on 2 August 2023, one Tinashe Chitsunge had been callously murdered by Zanu PF thugs in Glen View.
To this day, no action has been taken on the perpetrators of Chitsunge’s heinous murder.
Put simply, the national mood on the day of his inauguration was far from being an auspicious occasion.
Lie Number 4: We have demonstrated that we are a mature democracy
Through the conduct of the August 2023 elections, ED lied to the delegates at his inauguration that the country had proven that it was a mature democracy.
“Our unparalleled conduct before, during and after the electoral processes is praiseworthy and will be an everlasting standard and benchmark as we continue to deepen and entrench constitutional democracy in our country,” ED told the attendees at his inauguration.
Verdict
Contrary to ED’s lie, the election was dismissed by SADC and other local observers such as the Catholic Bishops Conference, who saw the conduct of the Zimbabwe elections before, during and after the polls as falling short of democratic standards.
Instead SADC saw our electoral process as having dismally failed to meet the country’s and the regional democratic tenets in the conduct of elections.
How can a country that recalls elected MPs and councillors and fails to meet the requirements of its own laws in the conduct of its elections be described as a mature democracy?
Mr Mnangagwa simply spun a fib.
Lie Number 5: Nyika inotongwa ne Vene Vayo (A country’s citizens are at the nub of its governance systems)
By Vene, ED gave the false impression that the generality of the citizens are the true stakeholders in the national governance system.
But under his tenure, we have since learnt that by Vene, ED is not referring to the generality of the country’s citizens.
Vene is a small clique of ED acolytes whose control spans across the vast sectors of the country’s economy.
The personages in this cast include Wicknell Chivayo, Kuda Tagwirei, the Mnangagwa family members, shady characters in the criminal underworld as well as that esoteric cast of caricature, among them Scott Sakupwanya, Uebert Angel, Kuda Tagwirei and others who were fingered in the Gold Mafia documentary.
Those are the Vene or real the owners of the country, not ordinary citizens as told by Mnangagwa at his inauguration.
ZECgate, Goatgate, Palmgate (the tender around the now wilting palm trees), Villagate and some such scandals have exposed the real Vene in this country; that parasitic elite behind the massive looting of the country’s vast wealth.
As I write, ED has taken his son Sean, a non-State actor, in his official delegation for the Africa-China summit in Beijing, obviously to stitch personal and family deals at the expense of the taxpayers.
Now those are the real Vene.
Lie Number 6: I will respect the Constitution
In his own words, ED said at his coronation on September 4 last year:
“Under this renewed mandate, I have re-committed to continue faithfully upholding and defending our sacred national Constitution and laws, with integrity and impartiality, leaving no one and no place behind.”
Verdict
This seems to be a blatant lie.
In spite of his insistence that he will leave office when his term expires in 2028 as per the dictates of the Constitution, we have no reason to believe him..
Earlier this week in Beijing, he insisted that he will leave office in 2028 as per the Constitution.
But then the man appears to have plucked from the handbook of ambiguity by indicating left and turning right.
Even as he insists to stick by the Constitution, his 2030 runners in Harare, led by Youth League boss Tino Machakaire, continue to rally the party and the nation that the President must stay on regardless.
What makes some of us doubt ED’s sincerity to upholding the Constitution is his brazenly uncouth method in systematically decimating the democratic alternative in the country, notwithstanding the provisions in the sacred charter that we are a Constitutional democracy.
ED is also the same man who has violated the Constitution before by illegally extending the term of office of Luke Malaba, the Chief Justice to be the steward of his interests in the judiciary.
Judging by what we have seen so far under his dispensation, ED simply cannot be trusted to abide by the Constitution.
Lie Number 7: I will transform the lives of the people
At his coronation last year, ED pledged to positively transform the lives of the rural and urban citizens of the country.
Verdict
That this was a blatant lie needs no explanation. The parlous lives of the country’s citizens are palpable as evidenced by a worthless currency, collapsed public health, public education, and public transport and sports infrastructure.
All amid a debilitating drought to which central government appears not to have a prudent mitigation plan.
Lie Number 8: We will be food secure in both maize and wheat
ED assured attendees at his coronation at the National Sports stadium that the country would be food secure.
Verdict
It has turned out this was a lie as the country had no grain reserves in its silos. Zimbabwe, a former bread basket in the region, is now scrounging for donations for hunger alleviation barely a year after his assurances of food security.
Government’s own lies on the food situation have also not helped matters.
In early January this year, the social welfare minister, July Moyo, told journalists that 2.7 million people will need food assistance during the peak hunger period of January to March 2024.
But the World Food Programme (WFP) hunger map for 2023/24 published around the same time showed that 4.1 million people face serious food insecurity, out of the country’s population of 16.6 million.
Lie Number 9: We will set up agro-based companies in the rural areas
At his coronation on this day last year, Mnangagwa said vulnerable districts and areas are now the critical focus.
He said rural development will be implemented at full scale through robust rural agriculture industrialisation models.
This, he said with the typical confidence of a certified liar, will result in the 35,000 villages country-wide, having productive agro-based companies, owned and run by the benefiting communities.
The programme, he said, will see a multi-fold increase in rural incomes and sustainable livelihoods.
Verdict
One year into his five year tenure, there is no sign of the groundwork of this massive and highly ambitious programme being rolled out in any of the villages in the country.
It was just the man telling his usual fireside, pie-in-the-sky yarns!
Lie Number 10: Our minerals will develop the country
ED said at his inauguration the numerous mineral resources in Zimbabwe must be sustainably exploited to leapfrog our industrialisation and development. He said the lives of our citizens and the fortunes of our country as a whole must be improved.
“We expect nothing less,” he boomed.
He said the economy must realise maximum benefits from increased beneficiation and value addition.
His administration, he said, through the Responsible Mining Initiative, will ensure greater stewardship over our finite natural resources to benefit both present and future generations.
Verdict
As exposed in the Gold Mafia documentary, the country’s vast mineral wealth continues to be looted by the rich and powerful elite, with no benefit whatsoever accruing to the ordinary Zimbabwean citizen.
All we have heard around our vast mineral wealth are ambitious pronouncements, with nothing tangible being done to benefit the ordinary citizens.
Six years ago in 2018, government set what it called a US $12 billion mining output target.
Six years later, nothing has happened and the Finance Ministry continues to present parlous budgets that remain a far cry from the mining target set up years back.
At his inauguration, ED was simply regurgitating the usual lie while the rich and powerful spirit away the country’s vast mineral wealth for themselves and their families.
Lie Number 11: We will modernise our infrastructure
Mnangagwa promised to modernise all infrastructure.
Verdict
Public health, public education and public transport infrastructure has all but collapsed and nothing has been done to rehabilitate, let alone modernise them, except the construction of the VVIP pavilion for the political elite at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International airport.
Even the National Sports stadium, at which ED’s inauguration ceremony was held and where he made the pledge to rehabilitate national infrastructure, has been condemned and the national football team will this month “host” its home games in faraway Uganda in East Africa.
What a shame.
Lie Number 12: We have achieved energy self-sufficiency
Perhaps the biggest lie was when ED told the world at his inauguration that his first five-year term between 2018 and 2023 had achieved energy self-sufficiency for Zimbabwe.
He said with a straight face:
“During the last five year-term, my Administration delivered energy self-sufficiency to our country. Courtesy of our comprehensive, strategic partnership with the People’s Republic of China, Hwange Unit 7 and Unit 8 are now on stream.”
Verdict
There is just no energy self-sufficiency in Zimbabwe. The citizens have persistently endured power outages, the only reprieve being the 72 hours that SADC leaders flew into Zimbabwe for their summit last month.
ED’s acolyte Wicknell Chivayo was paid millions for a power project he never delivered in Gwanda.
Otherwise we have perennially braved the usual noise about Hwange 7 and 8 with no reprieve whatsoever to the country’s debilitating energy crisis.
Conclusion: Liars for ED
Exactly a year ago, ED simply lied to the world and I have picked just 12 of the many fibs he told on this day.
Mnangagwa’s legacy that he is firmly etching in stone is that of the most corrupt and dishonest leader in history.
What is only left is for him to officially anoint a formal affiliate called Liars For ED to reinforce his penchant for perfidy, deceit and deception.
Yes, Zimbabweans and the world were liED to on 4 September 2023.
Luke Tamborinyoka is a citizen from Domboshava. He is a journalist and a political scientist by profession. You can interact with him via his Facebook page or his X handle @luke_tambo.
