Opinion / Columnist
A grim Christmas to all Zimbabweans and a grimier 2015 - want a merry one, earn it!
16 Dec 2014 at 17:10hrs | Views
"Politics is a dirty, especially Zimbabwean politics with corrupt and ruthless tyrants like Mugabe, Mnangagwa and Mujuru on one side and corrupt and blundering village idiots like Tsvangirai, Biti and Ncube on the other; stay clear of it!"
If I have heard that once I have heard it a million times and it has become Zimbabweans' excuse for doing nothing. And the nation has paid dearly for this folly.
It is a very dirty game indeed and many Zimbabweans have heeded the standard advice and have either gone along to get along or to stay out of it. But in a country with 90% unemployment, 300 000 or 80% of the children out of school because their parents are too poor to pay their school fees, 72% of the population is poor with 16% or 2 million now living in abject poverty, etc. and things are set to get even worse.
This is Christmas time, a time to be merry and of good cheer; it will be everywhere else except Zimbabwe. It is not because Zimbabwe has had a devastating earthquake or had an outbreak of a dead disease; no. It is going to be a grim Christmas and a grimier 2015 because of a man-made disaster; 34 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have destroyed the nation's economy throwing millions out of work and poverty.
For decades the regime has denied there was no mismanagement and corruption and blamed all the economic problems on the drought, sanctions or whatever else it could imagine. And we, the people, although we could see there was mismanagement and corruption we chose to ignore in line with our default setting of going along to get along. The cancerous problems have had 34 years to multiple and spread to every sector of the nation and today the tumour are the size of tennis balls.
The Zimbabwe economy is in ICU and it is not getting out of there unless these cancerous tumours are removed. Mugabe and Mnangagwa are not interested in removing the tumours but are busy making deals with the Chinese on how to increase the political repression by increasing the State Security, now that the Spy University in Mazoe is up and running. The Chinese will get unfettered access to the nation's mineral wealth!
If we have any common sense then surely we should have learnt by now that we deluded ourselves in thinking that we would go on as a nation and enjoy freedom, peace and economic prosperity regardless the dirty political game being played in our midst. Sadly, it seems, we still have not learnt this simple lesson.
Last year Mugabe and Zanu PF blatantly rigged the elections, bussing voters, failing to produce a voters roll, etc. and the nation's collective reaction was to shrug our shoulders and move on.
MDC should have implemented the democratic reforms which Mugabe and Zanu PF had grudgingly agreed to in the GPA. The reforms were designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and deliver free and fair elections. Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had five years to implement the reforms but failed to get even one reform implemented. Zimbabweans have responded in their usual water off the duck's back fashion.
Actually politics is not a dirty game at all, at least not to the politician. Zanu PF leaders are amongst some of the richest individuals on earth. Mugabe's $ 20 million (some say $2 billion) Blue Roof Mansion is palatial luxury anywhere but its grandeur assumes its sadistic character when it is seen in the Zimbabwe backdrop of rot, decay and grinding poverty everywhere else you go in Harare, Bulawayo, the country side, everywhere. 100 children below the age of five are dying every day of perfectly preventable disease because the country's health service is wilfully underfunded and yet Mugabe spend $1 million on his birthday and two weeks later $5 million on his daughter's wedding.
Tsvangirai got himself a $4 million Highlands mansion as his bribe for not implementing any of the democratic reforms. Not bad for one who is so incompetent he should be in Buhera herding goats – not more than ten or they will outwit him!
So my fellow Zimbabweans wherever you are in Zimbabwe; a grim Christmas to you all and a grimier New Year 2015! That is the price we pay for having a corrupt tyrannical regime whose speciality is rigging elections for 34 years. If we are ever to have a merry Christmas then we must get the murderous thugs out of government first! Think about it!
If I have heard that once I have heard it a million times and it has become Zimbabweans' excuse for doing nothing. And the nation has paid dearly for this folly.
It is a very dirty game indeed and many Zimbabweans have heeded the standard advice and have either gone along to get along or to stay out of it. But in a country with 90% unemployment, 300 000 or 80% of the children out of school because their parents are too poor to pay their school fees, 72% of the population is poor with 16% or 2 million now living in abject poverty, etc. and things are set to get even worse.
This is Christmas time, a time to be merry and of good cheer; it will be everywhere else except Zimbabwe. It is not because Zimbabwe has had a devastating earthquake or had an outbreak of a dead disease; no. It is going to be a grim Christmas and a grimier 2015 because of a man-made disaster; 34 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have destroyed the nation's economy throwing millions out of work and poverty.
For decades the regime has denied there was no mismanagement and corruption and blamed all the economic problems on the drought, sanctions or whatever else it could imagine. And we, the people, although we could see there was mismanagement and corruption we chose to ignore in line with our default setting of going along to get along. The cancerous problems have had 34 years to multiple and spread to every sector of the nation and today the tumour are the size of tennis balls.
The Zimbabwe economy is in ICU and it is not getting out of there unless these cancerous tumours are removed. Mugabe and Mnangagwa are not interested in removing the tumours but are busy making deals with the Chinese on how to increase the political repression by increasing the State Security, now that the Spy University in Mazoe is up and running. The Chinese will get unfettered access to the nation's mineral wealth!
If we have any common sense then surely we should have learnt by now that we deluded ourselves in thinking that we would go on as a nation and enjoy freedom, peace and economic prosperity regardless the dirty political game being played in our midst. Sadly, it seems, we still have not learnt this simple lesson.
Last year Mugabe and Zanu PF blatantly rigged the elections, bussing voters, failing to produce a voters roll, etc. and the nation's collective reaction was to shrug our shoulders and move on.
MDC should have implemented the democratic reforms which Mugabe and Zanu PF had grudgingly agreed to in the GPA. The reforms were designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and deliver free and fair elections. Tsvangirai and his MDC friends had five years to implement the reforms but failed to get even one reform implemented. Zimbabweans have responded in their usual water off the duck's back fashion.
Actually politics is not a dirty game at all, at least not to the politician. Zanu PF leaders are amongst some of the richest individuals on earth. Mugabe's $ 20 million (some say $2 billion) Blue Roof Mansion is palatial luxury anywhere but its grandeur assumes its sadistic character when it is seen in the Zimbabwe backdrop of rot, decay and grinding poverty everywhere else you go in Harare, Bulawayo, the country side, everywhere. 100 children below the age of five are dying every day of perfectly preventable disease because the country's health service is wilfully underfunded and yet Mugabe spend $1 million on his birthday and two weeks later $5 million on his daughter's wedding.
Tsvangirai got himself a $4 million Highlands mansion as his bribe for not implementing any of the democratic reforms. Not bad for one who is so incompetent he should be in Buhera herding goats – not more than ten or they will outwit him!
So my fellow Zimbabweans wherever you are in Zimbabwe; a grim Christmas to you all and a grimier New Year 2015! That is the price we pay for having a corrupt tyrannical regime whose speciality is rigging elections for 34 years. If we are ever to have a merry Christmas then we must get the murderous thugs out of government first! Think about it!
Source - Wilbert Mukori
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