From One Vice President to another - Salarygate

Cry the beloved Country!
How sad it is that at a time when the people of Zimbabwe are looking forward to solutions from their leaders in terms of the economic and social hardships, they have to be met with such revelations of obscene salaries being paid to some parastatal executives while the country haemorrhages day in day out. To add insult to injury, you then have unexpected statements from unexpected levels of office pouring petrol on an already burning nation.

The statements by Vice President Mujuru were unfortunate in that not only were they irresponsible but they were said by a person whom the nation expects more from - by virtue of being a motherly figure. Whenever a child suffers pain of any nature he or she looks up to the mother for comfort because the mother is supposed to be more sensitive to pain and especially emotional pain. Suppose the child would have had her orange forcefully taken from her she expects the mother to not only rebuke the offender but to also have the offender make right by returning what does not belong to them and the icing on the cake is when the mother spanks the offender as punishment then the child feels justice has been served. Likewise, the people of Zimbabwe are in great emotional pain where the 'haves' have been obscenely stealing from the 'have nots' and are therefore looking to their leaders for justice and message-sending to would-be Cashberts: that you cannot steal from the people and get away with it.
If we are to go anywhere as a nation we must start by telling each other the truth and those in the wrong should acknowledge wrong doing, apologise and redress.

Personally, I don't believe in name calling and use of derogatory and obscene words to put a fact or two across and neither does the party I belong to, which is Zapu.  Mai Mujuru I respect you as the Vice President of Zimbabwe and as such I'm going to tell it like it is in that context.

You let the people of our country down by your statements that imply protection of the offenders. You infringed on a crucial human basic right which is the right to information when you ordered the media to stop exposing this rot. You forgot that this is a national crisis and as a national leader you were supposed to approach it nationally not 'Zanuly'. Your response was obviously informed by the factional wars in your party and the unfortunate response came out. You forgot that this unfortunate situation is affecting us all, regardless of political affiliation. A response in a Zanu Pf context was the last thing you should have done. To make matters worse, it is strongly and largely believed that the looters are Zanu PF members belonging to your faction, so your statements were in really bad taste as a result; self- incriminating to say the least.

This is where the leaders in our country are failing the people today, because anything and everything is being politicized - even where it's a matter of national concern. We experienced this during the GNU where good ideas or policies were shot down simply because it was MDC – T that had come up with the idea or vice versa, at the expense of the people.  I'm not going to waste time repeating what has already been said from every length and breadth of this country and even beyond our borders. I'm simply going to appeal to you to be exemplary in your leadership and show the people that leaders are human so they also err, but  - above all - great leaders admit when they do wrong, apologise and go further to redress the situation. The nation is so hurt and its no secret that your head is needed on the plate and this is because your utterances added salt to injury to a nation that is reeling under dire poverty; with no jobs, no service delivery and no regard whatsoever for practice of servant leadership – Putting the People First.

Our children are suffering out there and the most recent reports are on the students in Russia who are sleeping at railway stations having been chucked out of residence because our government has not paid its dues to the authorities there. Now you tell me why they would not reconsider when they read about people earning just short of a million dollars here. What shame that has brought to our country Zimbabwe. I could go on and on but it would be repetition because the concerns of the people of this country are the same: so even their reaction to this whole saga has been the same, and certainly representative of each and every Zimbabwean out there.

So I'm appealing to you from one woman to another to restore the role that the children expect of us as mothers, and from one Vice President to another allow me to quote in part Wangari Maathai from her book "The Challenge for Africa  - A New Vision". The realization of good leadership could start with an African President or Prime Minister stepping forward and declaring:" We have a problem in our country and as a people. We are cheating and undermining ourselves, we need to change. For whether it is a policeman accepting a bribe, or a government minister receiving a kickback in order to license that business  - we are failing ourselves, our country, those who came before us and indeed future generations. I want us as a country to work on it and it will start with me, and I will do my best to fight greed and corruption. I will value honesty in whatever I do, I will genuinely put the people first".

I strongly believe no man or woman with Zimbabwe at heart will not appreciate that kind of declaration and respect you once more as 'amai' and leader of Zimbabwe. You only need to see the admiration that people now have for George Charamba because he stepped up, acknowledged doing wrong, apologized for it and is prepared to be part of the solutions. Already its being referred to as a brand new and brave political new Zimbabwean order that is emerging and should redefine this country forever. Now imagine the impact if you became the second voice of reason and added your name to this new leadership phenomenon in our country, for the good of our county. Over to you Vice President!

To fellow Zimbabweans, I say please let us not lose sight of the ball here and concentrate on what VP Mujuru said instead of the bigger picture where, as citizens, we must be demanding the prosecution of the looters. How will this end, will there be prosecutions? Or it is going to be the usual hype (almost like "entertainment" for the people) then the euphoria dies down and end of the story until another Gumbura or prominent businessman is caught pants down in the mealies field with another man's wife and becomes the news of the day.

People of Zimbabwe, this is serious stuff which we must not take lightly -  for a nation has been robbed by a heartless few and Zapu calls for no rest until the guilty have been brought to book. It is time to bring sanity to our institutions in every aspect and Zapu calls for the publication of the salary records of all state enterprises and parastatals on a yearly basis so that there is accountability when salary reviews are done. This will be an effective tool of making sure you do not have people who get five hundred percent salary increases.

Zapu also questions the practice of having the same people sitting on ten different boards, against all recognized international accounting and business standards. Surely, and we as ZAPU know, there are thousands of capable Zimbabwean people out there who can be seconded to the various boards, instead of recycling the same people. No wonder the rot is out of control;  there is cross -pollination of bad governance and ethics and these omnipotent and omnipresent board members have become an institution of corruption par excellence that has bled our country to near death. We question a similar practice where the same individual heads a particular ministry for decades upon decades as is the case in the ministries Local Government and Agriculture. What, and who, can then stop the rot from getting to these kinds of levels, because the same people linger there - covering-up whatever misdeeds they may be doing; and by the time it is unearthed half a century later, what good will it do the nation.

Zapu condemns in the strongest of terms this kind of irresponsibility and calls on the powers that be to see to it that justice prevails for the good of this country, for no one is above the law. We take our hats off to the media this time round, and we urge you to leave no stone unturned until everyone who looted, and might still be plundering, has been exposed and punished accordingly. You are the voice of the voiceless and to allow yourselves to be silenced by anyone on this your core business will be tantamount to failing the people of this great nation Zimbabwe. You are called to duty and we shall go to the cells with you if need be.

The people come first.