Itai Muzondo
The ruling party, Zanu PF, held its 7th National Congress under that heavily armoured theme. Armoured in the sense that every Zimbabwean, across the political divide, is, and has been, awaiting the said prosperity for a very long time now.
That we have had our fair share of challenges, cutting across the social strata is a fact that needs no reintroduction. Once again, it seems to most, we are in disagreement regarding the cause and how to locate and implement the appropriate exit strategies.
Pericles, one great Athenian, once observed, “Future ages will wonder at us as the present age wonders at us now.”
Succinct.
How did we get here? How did we allow ourselves to get into this quagmire, this quicksand? Can we, and how do we salvage something of our remaining pride and dignity?
Of course, these are the questions, doubtless, every Zimbabwean ought to be asking themselves today. Moreso, as we stand at the threshold of another election year.
Is this going to herald a new Dawn for our country, a country that has known strife in all its forms over the past two and a half decades?
Most parents of teenagers are at pains to explain how we got here. They are wondering at our generation, as, surely, future generations will wonder at this generation why we seem to have allowed this to go on unabated.
Everyone is groping for signs of hope.
Those elusive swords of light stab through the dark cloud that seems to be hovering over the nation.
The reality though is that there is fatigue, exasperation, a malaise, an existential war against these and probably a war against poverty, disease, tyranny and, sadly, war itself.
We have to do away with this oligarch that has sunk its claws into the political leadership bedrock, claiming exclusive rights to rule as if they own Zimbabwe.
Zimbabweans, by and large, are the heroes we hardly notice in all this. There are of course a handful whose personalities will hog the limelight of this daily struggle for life and livelihoods, but truth be told, the heroes are the silent unarmed foot soldiers, not the people in suits in the corridors of power or opposition party offices.
It is the Ordinary Zamai who will feel the pinch of leaking exams when their child has to face such uncertainty when Zimsec (our national examinations council) proves so porous.
In this case, Zimsec is a microcosm of the whole government set-up, with security integrity rolled into one. There are indeed more question marks than answers. Underpaid and disgruntled employees will find ways to survive, apparently unsavoury as this reality has shown us. And as most will agree, Zimsec is just but the tip of the iceberg.
The economic indicators and metrics of our nation over the past 25 years have been an eyesore. This of course goes beyond the sanctions (targeted or wholesale) – a fact that brings to the fore issues that have been eating at the very moral fibre of our political core as a nation.
One needs not to go so far for a reasonable and pragmatic comparison, look at what Zambia has managed to achieve in the short stint that President Hichilema has been the captain of the ship! It is a terrible indictment of the Zimbabwean outfit which has been ruining the country over the past 42 years.
These are issues that one hopes will be addressed at the Zanu PF Congress and hopefully find workable solutions to. It is a fervent hope, maybe against hope.
Surely 25 years without much but promises and failed policies hardly inspire optimism and confidence in the electorate, in the machinery and current crop of leadership.
We have a health department that is a shambles, an education system that has scandal written all over it now, and councils which are incapacitated daily because of skewed legislation.
Service delivery and lawfare are now a modern battleground for the political parties to outshine each other at the expense of the Ordinary Zamai.
It’s really sad!
The Zimbabwe AntiCorruption Commission is just another joke, led by corrupt officials, l dare say. Corruption in Zimbabwe is so entrenched that it is now the norm rather than the exception.
It has pervaded all corners of our country. We are sadly awakened to the fact of both ruling and opposition party members in the high echelons of power have ill-gotten farms and wealth.
In such deplorable situations, one wonders whether it is not insulting to the Zimbabwean populace to still be talking about party politics and whether party congresses should still be making headlines.
Articles upon articles have been written and will be written on the Zimbabwean’s economic and political landscape, but have we seen change?
Change yes admittedly we have witnessed, regrettably, but positive change in tangible deliverables is what we all yearn for. This situation that we have millions of Zimbabweans living as second-class citizens in bondage outside of their motherland is deplorable.
The geopolitical status quo where we seem to have created more enemies than friends is tragic.
Allow me to be blunt and say I am trying to sift through the chaff to excavate the positives from this overburden.
I realise it is almost an exercise in futility. Ultimately they say we all see what we want to see, but in our case, it is difficult to see in a darkness that seems suffocating and impenetrable.
The facts are in stark contrast with the aspirations that have long been forced down our throats, we have not been building a prosperous Zimbabwe anywhere on Earth over the past 25 years.
If anything, we have witnessed plunder by the very people who have been believing themselves the ordained of God to rule Zimbabwe.
We have had Hopewell Chin’ono trace footprints of corruption right to the door of the President, and nothing seems to be stopping the rot.
We are not building a prosperous Zimbabwe anywhere on earth.
‘Two men looked out of a Prison window, one saw the mud the other saw the stars’ so goes the statement….at least these two had a window!
