Mugabe only about self-preservation

Corrections
A year before Zimbabwe holds general elections; the country is already in an election mode and issues affecting ordinary people are being relegated to the periphery.

A year before Zimbabwe holds general elections; the country is already in an election mode and issues affecting ordinary people are being relegated to the periphery.

Comment: The Standard Editor

President Robert Mugabe, forever preoccupied with retaining power, confirmed as much when he addressed a meeting of his warring party’s central committee on Friday.

He revealed that Zanu PF would use the successful 2015/16 cropping season to rally its supporters ahead of the polls.

Mugabe also claimed without any sense of shame that there were signs that the economy was on a recovery path.

The ruling party has been falsely claiming that the success of the just-ended agriculture season is due to the controversial command agriculture scheme.

It must be stated for the record that the anticipated bumper harvest is solely an outcome of a good rainy season and hard work put in by long-suffering farmers.

The government’s Stalinist programme, which has been criticised by some ministers in public, was opportunist and had no long-term benefits to farmers who have watched helplessly as the country’s irrigation capacity is degraded.

However, such hard facts never stand in Mugabe’s quest for power.

He would latch onto anything that would mask his terrible track record. The claims that the economy is on a recovery path are pure deceit.

Zimbabweans are still waiting for Mugabe and his party to deliver on the 2,2 million jobs promise he made ahead of the 2013 election.

Companies have been closing down on a daily basis and thousands more workers are out of unemployment compared to four years ago.

Mugabe’s bold assertion that “the prospects before us are decidedly bright, with a palpable sense of hope pervading our nation” could not have been more ironic.

The truth is that Zimbabweans are despairing because the government is not showing any urgency in tackling pervasive economic problems that manifest themselves in massive cash shortages and lack of employment opportunities.

Mugabe must for once expend his energies on what he was elected to do by fulfilling his election promises.

On Friday he missed an opportunity to give his party direction on a number of issues, especially the economy.

The performance of Mugabe’s government is a reflection of the preoccupation with politics of self-preservation.

Ministers are now spending more time trying to secure their future in a post Mugabe era and as a result, no work gets done.

Zanu PF is burning because the only thing the party knows is to play politics, hence the electioneering that has hit top gear.

Mugabe should marshal his Cabinet to reconstruct this country after his ruinous 37 years in power and if he has run out of ideas, he should pass on the baton. Zimbabweans do not eat politics.

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