Reading through Desmond Kumbuka’s opinion piece in The Standard titled Patronage, ignorance: The twin evils of greed [January 26-February 1 2014] and his subsequent criticism on the calibre of MPs in Zimbabwe, I thought to myself, which is better: a highly educated MP with many degrees who does nothing for the people, or an uneducated MP who provides practical solutions to the contemporary societal problems confronting his constituents?
Sunday View with Natasha Msonza
The author had no kind words where most of our MPs are concerned, and admittedly, some Zimbabweans may agree with some of the descriptions used for the men and women in Parliament. He describes them as “ever-whining legislators, many of whom spend their time day-dreaming of a life of luxury at the State’s expense.” He bemoans the fact that for a country with one of the highest literacy rates in Africa; it is astounding that Zimbabwe “ends up with a parliament full of illiterate or semi-educated nonentities”.
I think it is important to remember that most of these “nonentities” are people that Zimbabweans voted into those posts; the adage that people deserve the leadership they get rings true.
Having under-educated legislators can be a challenge, especially when viewed from the perspective of the mammoth socio-economic challenges currently facing the country and the things that need to be done and solutions put in place. In fact, I know many Zimbabweans who are of the opinion that Parliamentarians should all have degrees as a minimum qualification. Our current system admits anyone with Ordinary Level as the minimum qualification.
I recall a time when I worked with MPs to help them understand the concept of equitable resource allocation so that they could positively influence the national budget crafting process. The men and women of the house had a hard time trying to make head or tail of the budgeting process in general. Then, it seemed reasonable to imagine that if they had a little bit more education, they would have been able to understand what many of us consider to be elementary.
The writer also suggests that while a system that “allows any Jim, Jack or Jill to aspire for political office is truly democratic, mendicant legislators will invariably spend more of their time pondering how to overcome their own poverty before they can start to think of improving the lives of people in their constituencies.” While I may be inclined to agree with this last statement, I think it is immediately defeated by the choice of example he picks to argue his point. He picks on the man we all love to ridicule, Joseph Chinotimba, whom he describes as “loquacious”.
Looking at the performance of the 8th Parliament to date, the inconvenient truth is that Chinotimba is currently one of the best performing MPs. He has personally seen to it that the problem of hyenas ravaging his constituency has been dealt with effectively, making a huge life and death difference for Buhera South inhabitants.
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Recently, Chinotimba was featured in the press with graders and earth-moving equipment in the background, repairing the notorious Murambinda-Birchenough road. The man is going out of his way to source funds to repair all major roads in his constituency.
It does not follow, that if you have an education from Harvard, you automatically think of the best solutions to problems. Ordinary citizens’ immediate needs are not being met, all they want is someone who pays meaningful attention to their practical day-to-day problems such as access to water, electricity and food. Among other things, the role of Parliamentarians includes being responsive to the needs of citizens, resolving the most pressing problems confronting society, and being able to reconcile the conflicting interests of expectations of different groups and communities.
