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Alex T Magaisa 🇿🇼

@Wamagaisa

8 Jan

1. Remember the strategy of Lawfare? It’s a favourite of the Mnangagwa regime. It has normalised selective application of the law aided by the lack of resistance to it. That’s why Fantan & Levels are in jail while ministers like Mutsvangwa & Kazembe who violated same laws aren’t.

2. That’s why Hopewell Chin’ono has been arrested and Job Sikhala is threatened with arrest for something that was in the public domain & was done by scores of people. State media journalists lie everyday, nobody arrests them. The targeting is political, no doubt.

3. So far we have seen Lawfare at the level of arrests & denial of bail. But the Fantan & Levels’ case represents something more ominous: conviction & sentencing. This is the next stage of Lawfare. That case is the start of normalisation of convictions and jailing proper.

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Alex T Magaisa 🇿🇼

@Wamagaisa

5 Jan

1. The COVID19 pandemic is a reminder of the scourge of global inequality. Zimbabwe and the U.K. announced new national lockdowns within a day of each other. The U.K. government is offering more grants so firms can stay afloat. The Zimbabwean government is offering nothing.

2. Wealthy countries have spent billions of dollars intervening in their economies to save businesses. Free market fundamentalism is in abeyance during the crisis. Poor countries on the other hand have not done much to cushion their populations. They simply don’t have the means.

3. The same pattern applies to vaccines. Wealthy countries bought millions of vaccine doses well in advance. They have already started the roll outs. Their poorer cousins are waiting, many of them have to rely on handouts. After all their health budgets are funded by donors.

Read 10 tweets

Alex T Magaisa 🇿🇼

@Wamagaisa

4 Jan

@JSCZim

1. The @JSCZim carried out interviews of candidates for the Constitutional Court way back on 28 September 2020. More than 3 months after the interviews, there are no substantive appointments. Both @edmnangagwa & the @JSCZim are mute on this important matter.

@JSCZim

2. Under the Constitution the President is required to choose from a list done by the @JSCZim after interviews. It is reasonable to presume this list was sent to the President. So what happened? The law recognises that the President may have been in impressed by the candidates

@JSCZim

3. However, if he’s not happy with the candidates on the 1st list, he is required to call for a new list from the @JSCZim When the JSC submits a new list, the President has no choice but to appoint from that list. We do not know what has happened since 28/09/20. It’s been quiet.

Read 8 tweets

Alex T Magaisa 🇿🇼

@Wamagaisa

4 Jan

1. The only surprise is seeing colleagues being surprised by the G40 narrative from the judicially reconstructed MDCT. To understand the creature that emerged from the EOC one must trace its genealogy to the pre-November 2017 engagements involving coup authors & opposition elites

2. That is a story that is yet to be fully told, though snippets have been published here & there. There’s a reason why the MDC leadership got caught up in the frenzy of the coup, mistakenly believing they also had a share in the outcome. They were deceived & fell for the ruse.

3. Morgan Tsvangirai was never part of the equation. The system knew the opposition icon was on his last legs. But MT had allowed certain elites in his party to represent him in pre-coup engagements. Now, in a relationship between principal & agent there’re always agency costs.

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Alex T Magaisa 🇿🇼

@Wamagaisa

31 Dec 20

1. They spent years & acres of space in state media lampooning Morgan Tsvangirai. But in death, they eulogise him. It is not because they have discovered respect for the man, no. They do it to use him as a source of legitimacy by way of heirship to their preferred “successor”.

2. They abused Tsvangirai while he lived. They still abuse him after his death. They think if they can attach their horse to Tsvangirai he will earn legitimacy in the eyes of the MDC community. The aim is not to praise Mwonzora but to undermine their true & feared rival Chamisa.

3. The irony is that they applaud Mwonzora for the so-called notion of “responsible opposition” while at the same time naming him the true successor to Tsvangirai as if they ever recognised Tsvangirai as “responsible opposition”. In fact, they called him a puppet & beat him up.

Read 11 tweets

Alex T Magaisa 🇿🇼

@Wamagaisa

28 Dec 20

1. They had all the money from the State. They got the power to fire MPs & councillors. They grabbed the HQ with state support. They even had ZANU PF treatment with ZUPCO ferrying delegates & venue at Rainbow Towers. Yet with all this power & money, they couldn’t form a quorum.

2. A quorum is the minimum number of people required for a valid meeting. The inquorate Congress requires another Congress to validate its decisions. But the mere fact that a political party is unable to summon enough people to form a quorum is a huge political embarrassment.

3. But even then, they could not manage the small numbers. 3 candidates walked out, citing rigging. As if it wasn’t farcical already, Khupe claimed to have suspended her competitor, Mwonzora in the middle of the Congress, which was marred by despicable violence aimed at her.

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