Statement from Wilbert Mukori 11/02/2015

We, the undersigned, have gathered together on this day 21^st February 2015, President Mugabe’s 91^st birthday, not to wish him happy birthday but to add our voices to those demanding that he and his Zanu PF must step down now to allow for a peaceful end to the economic and political crisis, 35 years of his corrupt and tyrannical rule has caused. President Mugabe is a failed leader and he must now go.

No one can deny that the national economy is in ruins because the facts on the ground speak for themselves. Unemployment is 90% plus, 2 million are now living in abject poverty, the regime is now forcing soldiers to go on one month leave every other month to save on food bills, etc. This situation is unsustainable and is getting worse and not better.

The regime's ZimAsset recovery plan has failed to raise the $27 billion it requires. The two cheques from the Chinese ($4 billion) and Russians ($3 billion) in the ZimAsset begging bowl are for projects and not budgetary support which is what the regime was after and worse still they are both post-dated. Whilst the two nations were very quick off the mark in joining in the looting of Zimbabwe’s Marange diamonds, one of the concessions demanded in return for the cheques, they have been dragging their feet in starting the projects.

The economic recovery and 2.2 million new jobs that ZimAsset was supposed to bring will never ever happen. As long as Zanu PF remains in power the Zimbabwe economy will never recover.

Zimbabwe’s economic failure has create a health time-bomb; the failure to supply clean running water means hundreds of thousands are at risk from water borne diseases like diarrhoea and cholera. The second time-bomb the nation is sitting on is a social one: the fact that, with a 90% plus unemployment rate, the country has still not seen masses coming out in the street to protest is a marvel but the regime would be unwise to test providence.

The Kariba Dam wall has not burst but that is no excuse to do nothing about the cracking walls and to fill it beyond its designed maximum capacity. If it should burst, the wall of water, uprooted trees and rocks twenty metres high and three kilometres wide will sweep all before it. We should not wait until there are street protests and rioting in our cities and town to do something about the country’s economic meltdown because the rioting may unleash chaos and destruction no one can control.

We are gathered here on President Mugabe’s 91 birthday, to send the following messages to these people:

1. To President Mugabe: we are not here to wish you happy birthday but to remind you that you have failed and it is time to go. You have the choice of peaceful evolutionary change in which the country is allowed to implement all the democrat reforms followed by free, fair and credible elections. Or if you hang on to power like a binnacle to a rock you can rest assured that violent revolutionary change will sweep you aside just as it has done many other tyrants before you.

2. To Zanu PF ruling elite: any economic system that forces 90% of the population into poverty is economically, socially and politically unsustainable. Regime change, unwelcome as it is to your ears, is now a national necessity and all those still trying to resist change are whistling in the graveyard.

3. To Zimbabwe’s SADC neighbours: Zimbabwe’s rigged 2013 elections was a fudge, they did not end Zimbabwe’s political crisis and now it is more complex than ever. Still SADC must once again play its part to achieve a peaceful evolutionary change as opposed to the violent route President Mugabe is pushing the nation into. When your neighbour’s house is on fire it is wise to help put out the fire because a burning ember carried by the wind could set your home alight too.

4. To ordinary Zimbabweans; it is in our interest to seek a peaceful end to this Zanu PF dictatorship and the only way to achieve that is by using all the available avenues to demand that Zanu PF step down now to allow the implementation of ALL the democratic reforms way followed by free, fair and credible elections. There is no such thing as peaceful demonstrations in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe; he will deploy the Riot Police with strict orders to shoot to kill to meet the demonstrators. Once provoked the crowd will very quickly turn into a rioting mob!

People must understand that doing nothing is no longer an option; it is doing nothing that has led the nation into this mess and doing nothing will leave only one way out – a violent revolutionary route.

1. To the UN and the international community: whilst we readily admit that Zimbabwe wasted its best chance to bring about peaceful democratic change by implementing the reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, we have since learnt our lesson and now seek all your assistance to end this nightmare. Given Zimbabwe’s political dynamics it will need the UN or some other such body to mediating role SADC played last time to force President Mugabe and Zanu PF to step down and allow the implementation of all the democratic reforms agreed to in 2008.

We are asking the international community to erect a fence at the top of the cliff to stop Zimbabwe becoming another Libya or Syria where the community is now busy running an ambulance service gathering broken bodies and broken lives at the bottom of the cliff.

List of the organisations and individuals who support and endorse the statement: Zimbabwe Vigil, MDC-T UK, USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Zimbabwe African People’s Union UK (ZAPU-UK), Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe (ROHR), Occupy Africa Unity Square (OAUS UK), Zimbabwe Yes We Can, Zimbabweans United for Democracy (ZUNDE), Zimbabwe Social Democrats and the Swaziland Vigil.

Protest Details

Time and Date: 2 – 6 pm on 21^st February 2015

Venue: outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London WC2R 0JR