Ten thousand United States dollars. That is what ZANU PF believes a Zimbabwean legislator is worth. That is the figure Wicknell Chivayo waved in the face of the nation on Independence Day, when he announced he would distribute US$3.6 million to all 360 members of parliament and the senate, with the personal blessing of Emmerson Mnangagwa himself. They did not even bother to hide it. They announced it on the day we are supposed to celebrate our freedom. They turned the anniversary of our liberation into the auction of our democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is not a donation. This is a bribe. Let us refuse, once and for all, to use the polite language this regime hides behind. A man who built his fortune on the carcass of the Gwanda Solar Project, a US$173 million contract that produced nothing but darkness for a power starved nation, is now reaching into the chamber of our legislature with cash in hand. He does so weeks before parliament is asked to vote on Constitutional Amendment Bill Number 3, the very instrument designed to keep Mnangagwa in power beyond 2028. He calls Mnangagwa “the principal.” He has openly campaigned for the term extension. And now he writes the cheques. Only the wilfully blind would fail to see what is being purchased here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The defenders of this transaction insult our intelligence with comparisons to international funding. They tell us parliament has accepted money from the United Nations, from Britain, from the United States, from China. They pretend a multilateral grant negotiated through public frameworks is the same as a politically connected tycoon handing envelopes to legislators on the eve of a constitutional vote. It is not the same. It has never been the same. The comparison itself is the lie that exposes the project. ZANU PF is not interested in development. ZANU PF is interested in survival, and it will sell anything that still belongs to the people in order to secure another five years at the trough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then comes the threat, dressed in the soft voice of a benefactor. Chivayo tells us that any legislator who refuses the money is free to do so, because he will simply find someone else in that constituency to fund. Hear him clearly. He is announcing, in public, that he will bankroll political rivals against any MP who refuses to be bought. This is not philanthropy. This is the open construction of a parallel patronage machine, designed to punish independence and reward submission. It is the methodology of a mafia state, and it is being celebrated by the regime as patriotism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let us be honest about the country we are living in. We are no longer dealing with a government that pretends to honour the constitution. We are dealing with a cartel that has captured the state, captured the courts, captured the security services, and is now finishing the job by capturing parliament itself. Once the legislature has been paid for, the amendment to extend Mnangagwa’s rule becomes a formality. Once the amendment passes, and the president can be selected by a parliament rather than chosen by the people, the vote you cast in 2028 will not matter. They are not amending the constitution. They are dismantling it, brick by brick, in front of our eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The men and women who fought in the bush did not bleed for this. The mothers who buried sons and daughters did not weep for this. Forty six years after the flag was raised, the country those heroes died for is being sold off in ten thousand dollar instalments by a businessman acting on the orders of a President who refuses to leave. This is not independence. This is occupation by our own ruling class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zimbabweans must reject this bribe. Reject this bill. Reject this regime. And reject the lie that any of this is normal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ten thousand United States dollars. That is what ZANU PF believes a Zimbabwean legislator is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tsitsindoro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tsitsindoro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tsitsindoro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tsitsindoro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tsitsindoro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tsitsindoro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":591,"href":"https:\/\/tsitsindoro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions\/591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tsitsindoro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tsitsindoro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tsitsindoro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tsitsindoro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}