In a week when tens of Harare residents were hospitalised suffering from typhoid, the government announced that it was splashing in excess of $6 million buying top-of-the-range vehicles for chiefs.
The purchase of the 226 vehicles to be brought from outside the country means the cash-strapped government will have to divert foreign currency meant for critical supplies such as that of medical drugs so that it caters for Zanu PF’s electioneering shenanigans.
Several companies in the critical sectors of the economy have been queueing for the same foreign currency for several months resulting in shortages of basics such as cooking oil and critical medical drugs.
The outbreak of typhoid in Harare only served to drive the point home that things have fallen apart in the country and citizens are falling victim to medieval diseases, yet President Robert Mugabe still has the nerve to throw scarce resources on power-retention schemes.
Chiefs are being pampered for a reason. Zimbabwe is heading for a crucial election next year and indications are that it will not be an easy ride for Zanu PF because for the first time, the ruling party will not have the privilege of a voters’ roll that is full of dead people.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is embarking on an exercise to produce a fresh voters’ roll where the biometric voter registration system has been deployed.
As if that was not enough, the economy is imploding at an alarming rate and Zanu PF is so engrossed in the fights over Mugabe’s succession there is no one to douse the flames.
So the only way the party can survive an electoral annihilation, so its hare-brained strategists believe, would be to bribe traditional leaders – a tried and tested method in previous polls.
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It is an unfortunate reality that our chiefs have been at the mercy of cunning politicians since the days of Ian Smith’s racist government where a number of unprincipled traditional leaders became notorious for being bought with trinkets so they could side with the enemy at the expense of their subjects.
Instead of restoring some dignity in the institution, Mugabe and Zanu PF perpetuated the abuse, throwing some trinkets once in a while to buy the loyalty of chiefs.
As the cake became smaller, this abuse of traditional leaders came at the expense of long-suffering citizens who are routinely deprived of essentials because money meant for important programmes is diverted to buy the traditional leaders some gifts when elections beckon.
Mugabe must be ashamed of the latest blunder by his government.
Far from empowering the chiefs, by throwing trinkets at a few privileged traditional leaders, especially at a time of great suffering for the majority nation, the government has eroded the little respect the subjects had for that important institution.
