There is something gravely sinister about the minds of the men and women who rule this country.
The Oracle with Tangai Chipangura
While it is starkly evident that they have destroyed this country, having run it down into debilitating misery, these people from the ruling Zanu PF party actually believe that it is criminal for poverty-stricken Zimbabweans to accept food, water, shelter or medicines from anyone whom they deem unfriendly.
An unnamed Zanu PF Senator was quoted in the front page story of a State-owned daily on Friday breathing fire over such handouts and branding MPs whose constituencies received the food and medicines as “the dirty dozen, disciples of regime change”.
The unnamed “Senator” — whose foul language sounds all too familiar — thinks it is “a tragedy that this dirty dozen is either breathtakingly naïve or hopelessly treacherous or both, to the point of not seeing the harmful consequences of…” accepting the donations.
This is despite the fact that the donations were made in broad daylight, by a duly accredited Ambassador of the United States. The US donates every year many millions of dollars’ worth of assistance, gladly received by the government run by the Senator’s party!
This said Senator though, does not say in her vitriol, how else the poor villagers — whose lives she, through her party Zanu PF, has ruined — are supposed to get the life-saving ARVs and food.
And — as if she had made a huge expose` — the Senator proceeds to name the ‘treacherous’ MPs who allowed their constituents to receive the food. What monumental folly of a sick mind!
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But then, events obtaining in the country in recent days do portray Zimbabwe as a country of beggars, led by brainless, greedy and insensitive politicians who thrive on lies, theft, arrogance and false promises meant to fool the citizenry.
After a year of lies, or is it self-deceit, in which Zimbabweans were told the economy was sound and growing well enough to provide over two million jobs “within two years” following the dissolution of the “crippling” inclusive government, authorities have begun running around, begging bowl in hand, frantically trying to save the economy, and themselves, from total collapse.
President Robert Mugabe too has been roped in to lead the begging crusade. The result is the non-stop news about “mega” deals — none of which will bring immediate relief to the crumbling economy.
Other features of the unfolding depressing drama include an increase in taxes, choking already suffering masses.
Fuel, food and even means of communication have been made more expensive. Many more tollgates are being put up — where only the ordinary man and woman, not the chefs, must pay for using the death traps we call our highways.
Money must be raised at all costs, from poor citizens, including lowly paid civil servants, in order to pay the same workers.
The curious paradox in all this is that the same incompetent individuals, presiding over this frightful state of affairs, still want to stay in office! In normal democracies, what is expected of this crop of failures are mass resignations.
But in our country, it appears failure, mediocrity, corruption, fraud and theft are all celebrated and the culprits, instead of bowing down in shame, stand up to fight for more chances to do the same.
That is why the moral decay has, like President Mugabe’s “weevils”, eaten away all the dignity and respect that our universities used to boast — and doctorates, that should take several years of hard work and determination to obtain, can now be handed over on the strength of a telephone call!
The reason for this moral decadence is that Zimbabwe’s political leaders have been allowed to do whatever they want with so much impunity they do not feel a tinge of guilt.
Diamond scams, Salarygate, fuel scams, Air Zimbabwe scandals, land scams, farm mechanisation and agricultural input scandals and countless other vices have been unearthed countless times but nothing is done about them.
The cost of the Kariba power project, being sponsored by the Chinese, has been hugely inflated so as to allow millions of dirty dollars into our politicians’ bottomless pockets.
Many more millions of dollars have been stolen from the Airport road project in Harare which has taken forever to complete!
Authorities, including President Mugabe, have each time raised expectations that the culprits would be brought to account — but nothing ever happens.
Meanwhile, the ordinary man who is affected by this warped governance is not allowed to complain publicly, lest a cash-laden investor runs away with more loot for the chefs!
Last week we had workers at the NRZ who have gone for ages without pay, being told they should not complain about their predicament in public, through demonstrations, because that would upset the prospective investor!
“We’re working hard to bring industry to its feet, but what’s disappointing is that while we engage investors on NRZ revival and we’re about to clinch the deals, we see people staging demonstrations,” Transport minister Obert Mpofu was quoted as saying in Bulawayo last week.
“Even if you’re milking a cow, you milk a live one. You can’t be seen milking a dead cow and hope to get milk,” he fumed.
So, the workers should continue to suffer in silence until the investor has brought in the money — without any guarantee though that when the time comes for “milking the cow”, the povo would have their share of the milk!
Fact is our politicians appear determined to bleed this country to death — completely oblivious of the fact that if they continue on this path, there soon will be nothing to go after, but each other.
Their greed and boundless primitive accumulation has dislocated this country. Yet they still claim they have worked hard and that the masses that have toiled for their deep pockets have not done enough to pull themselves up by their bootstraps — never mind most of us never had the straps; nor the boots.
These men and women who have grown dropping tummies on the sweat of the povo, still seek to chisel out more of the national cake for themselves!
They are so filled with “patriotism” that at the December Zanu PF congress, they are going to be fighting, like crabs in a bucket, for another chance to preside over our misery.
A greater depth of wickedness than this is not easy to imagine.
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