Things that are happening in the ruling Zanu PF party and, by extension, the country at large remind me of the humourous analogy equating politicians to a bunch of bananas; they stick together, yellow to the core, slippery when stepped on and not one of them is straight!
THE ORACLE BY TANGAI CHIPANGURA
Politicians, particularly those in Zanu PF, have pillaged the country left, right and centre over many years and with the arrogant impunity of fools that do not think there is a tomorrow. They have done this from the high positions and offices that they strategically give each other for no other purpose but to enrich themselves.
These politicians are 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 — as is now happening in Zanu PF.
All the factionalism that now pervades the once revolutionary party can only be traced to power and greed.
Evidence of massive plunder lies in the poverty and misery of a people whose prosperous country has been brought to its knees; in the obscene ill-gotten wealth that a few citizens flagrantly flaunt; and in the words of its leader who casually tells the nation that $15 billion has simply gone missing.
President Robert Mugabe’s refusal to relinquish power on age and related reasons and the consequential fights and splits within Zanu PF, are all to do with power, greed and individual wealth.
Now more than ever before, Zanu PF needs to get rid of its graft-stained leadership. The party can no longer honestly claim to safeguard the principles of democracy or to identify with the majority and therefore can no longer articulate their point of view.
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The factionalism and splits are fast transforming the party into a lumbering organisation with a potpourri membership whose strongest constituents — the war veterans — now loathe the people they entrusted with governance power and are themselves at each other’s throats.
The greed-induced decay in Zanu PF has reduced it to some useless entity with vague plans and an inept leadership whose decisions and respect for democracy are riddled with bullets of tyranny.
The party is now entangled in the gossamer threads of failed ideologies and moral decay which is leading the country to poverty and destruction every day.
We are close to breaking world unemployment record, our infrastructure — road, rail network — now lies in ruin, power generation is ceaselessly sick and we have deliberately killed agriculture, the mainstay of our economy.
Yet we drive bulldozers to demolish expensively built houses for stupid reasons and allow billions of dollars’ worth of minerals to disappear into the hands of a few, including officials who then obscenely display the stolen wealth.
The latest evidence of Zanu PF’s ideological bankruptcy is the decision by Indigenisation minister Patrick Zhuwao and the Cabinet chaired by his uncle Mugabe to force closure of the few remaining foreign companies. Needless to say, the result of this foolishness will be disastrous for an economy in comatose.
But then again, it’s an issue of power, wealth and greed. There is a lot of dirty money to be made — by individuals and not country — in closing or not closing rich foreign companies!
Are these individuals or their collective in the form of cabinet or politburo — which make such decisions — the same people that we expect to captain this country to prosperity; or take us out of the cesspit that they threw us into in the first place?
Maybe Zimbabweans are expecting too much from mere mortals, but to absolve these leaders of their armchair commitment under the all embarrassing and loose “individual priority” excuse would be tantamount to flying against the very expectations that have seen our politicians appointed to high offices.
They may be a bunch of clueless politicians whose unbridled greed knows no bounds, but they should not be allowed to continue to ruin our lives by running this country as if it were their private property.
The problem is that those that are expected to rein in this plunder and arrogance are themselves greedy cowards. These bootlicking hangers-on have stupefied our leaders into believing they are the last Pharaohs.
Decisions such as the closure of foreign firms are horrid proof of what happens to leaders that blindly fall victim to hyperbolic praises and sycophantic flattery.
The tragedy of such stupidity by our weak-minded leaders is that the consequences of their actions affect the poor ordinary man who must then lose their livelihood. How on earth does the country benefit out of closing companies? Just how can two million jobs be created this way?
The problem is that these people who make these decisions on our behalf no longer feel they are accountable to the people that voted them into power. They see themselves as indefatigable holy cows and not fallible humans.
We should, as a nation, work together to ensure that we bring hope and not despair; fruit and not harm; prosperity and not more poverty to our country. This country has suffered immensely and unnecessarily in the past 15 years or so because we knowingly have not done the right things.
Politicians have wantonly abused people’s constitutional right to choose leaders of their choice and the country has endured the painful consequences of disputed polls. The consequences have come in the form of violence and bloodshed; economic decay and debilitating poverty; restlessness and hatred.
It is no fallacy that Zimbabweans are, by nature, a peace-loving people, but this God-given attribute has been stolen from us by power-hungry and thieving politicians who, driven by nothing else but greed and primitive accumulation, have sacrificed the lives of millions of our people for selfish ends.
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