Opinion / Columnist
Zimbabwe's regression will continue as long as we tolerate bad leadership
21 May 2019 at 19:28hrs | Views
The video below reminds us of our tragic failure to build on what was there at independence. With the kind of foundation that had been laid for the National Railways of Zimbabwe, ours should today be the story of a country with the best rail transportation network in the world.
Our regression will persist with tragic consequences for our livelihoods if we continue to vote for and tolerate bad leaders simply because they are from our province, our party, our family, our race, or because their buffoonery provides us the most comic relief.
The hardships we are experiencing right now are what we get for electing a president who offers land to the "lovers of golf" to build courses in national parks so that as they play, they can be "mixing with elephants and lions." Our regression will persist when we are more entertained by his funny way of saying "pasi nemhandu" (a euphemism for "death to the enemy") than we are outraged by the wholesale plunder and mortgaging of our country's resources happening under his watch.
There are those who are pinning a lot of hope on a positive outcome from dialogue with Zanu-PF's leaders. I am not one of them because what has been demonstrated in the past 39 years is that those who rise to the top of Zanu-PF are the most selfish, calculating, vicious and destructive leaders whose singular goal is self-preservation.
Because of that, we have seen a reversal of all the gains of the GNU era, and since Mugabe's ouster, the abuse of unprecedented local and international goodwill by those who prevailed in Zanu-PFs internal battles whose only interest was entrenching themselves at everyone else's expense.
Not much can change in our country until we no longer accept that simply being the architect of a coup qualifies anyone to be Vice President of a country and to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. And as has been demonstrated since August 2018, we can't expect a man who was mentored by Mugabe and was his closest aid for over five decades to take us anywhere different than where President Mnangagwa is taking our country, i.e. over the cliff.
#farewelltoinnocence.
Is There Not a Cause?
Our regression will persist with tragic consequences for our livelihoods if we continue to vote for and tolerate bad leaders simply because they are from our province, our party, our family, our race, or because their buffoonery provides us the most comic relief.
The hardships we are experiencing right now are what we get for electing a president who offers land to the "lovers of golf" to build courses in national parks so that as they play, they can be "mixing with elephants and lions." Our regression will persist when we are more entertained by his funny way of saying "pasi nemhandu" (a euphemism for "death to the enemy") than we are outraged by the wholesale plunder and mortgaging of our country's resources happening under his watch.
There are those who are pinning a lot of hope on a positive outcome from dialogue with Zanu-PF's leaders. I am not one of them because what has been demonstrated in the past 39 years is that those who rise to the top of Zanu-PF are the most selfish, calculating, vicious and destructive leaders whose singular goal is self-preservation.
Because of that, we have seen a reversal of all the gains of the GNU era, and since Mugabe's ouster, the abuse of unprecedented local and international goodwill by those who prevailed in Zanu-PFs internal battles whose only interest was entrenching themselves at everyone else's expense.
Not much can change in our country until we no longer accept that simply being the architect of a coup qualifies anyone to be Vice President of a country and to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. And as has been demonstrated since August 2018, we can't expect a man who was mentored by Mugabe and was his closest aid for over five decades to take us anywhere different than where President Mnangagwa is taking our country, i.e. over the cliff.
#farewelltoinnocence.
Is There Not a Cause?
Source - Dr Noah Manyika
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