An article published in a local daily recently made very disturbing reading indeed. We have a bunch of supposedly wise leaders acting like spoilt brats. What do chiefs need guns for? They claim that they need weapons to protect themselves, but from what? The people of Zimbabwe have been under siege from Zanu PF politicians for many years yet they have never demanded guns to protect themselves from their tormentors?
The chiefs are demanding farms for themselves; does this mean that they want to abandon their villages and the people they lead to live on farms? They are demanding new cars yet the brand new vehicles they were given less than five years ago were mishandled when some of them were turned into emergency taxis.
The demands rot was started by war veterans who squandered billions of dollars they were given in gratuities in 1997. Then followed by our legislators who demanded hefty salaries, posh cars, farms, etc, while the majority of Zimbabweans were living on less than a dollar a day and civil servants have been pleading for better salaries to no avail.
The demands made by the chiefs should be rejected by government with the contempt that they deserve. What have the chiefs done for the people besides organising torture camps in their villages on behalf of Zanu PF? Why are these scroungers so uncaring for the over-burdened taxpayer? The demand for the US$50 000 development funds for their villages will only lead to more demands. The fund must be scrapped and the funds channelled to rural councils to develop their areas.
I hope that President Robert Mugabe will whip these misguided parasites into line when he meets them for their next meeting at the expense of the suffering taxpayer.
As far as I am concerned, chiefs are becoming a burden on the people of Zimbabwe. They are enjoying extraordinary privileges from a government which prostituted them for its own selfish ends. Why should chiefs expect their grievances to be dealt with promptly, when civil servants have, for ages, been engaged in a futile battle for better salaries?
Lastly, arming chiefs with guns will only create another group of people Zimbabweans have to fear — we are already at the mercy of the police, the army, CIO agents, war veterans, Chipangano and other political thugs.
When will God give suffering Zimbabweans a break?
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KF Mhlanga, Masvingo.
