The illusionary Dangote dream

Since the past week the media has been awash with news about the Nigerian billionaire Aliko Alhaji Dangote coming to Zimbabwe and his intentions of investing USD3 Billion in the cement industry and what not. It is very welcome news that our sinking titanic has managed to attract an investor even in this harsh climate that favour no sound investment attempts or process. The news would almost make one believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel after all, that a messiah has finally come to deliver us from the wilderness of perennial poverty and despair. Every Zimbabwean would certainly find joy in promises of better days and salvation from this downward spiral of the economy in every sector apart from the thriving business of the regime's brutality, disappearance of political activists and corrupt ruling party ministers. Having lived through the 2007-08 era everyone would jump at every opportunity of economic sanity amid the massive retrenchments and company closures prevailing in this time and age! Who wouldn't hope and dream to bite at the sweet fruits of this perceived or cooked up mirage of prosperity? You must be from outer space not to flow with such ‘dreams of brighter days'.

The Aliko Alhaji Dangote visit has left many in the ruling ZANU tongue wagging and salivating for the ‘impending' pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and has left the state media churning out pages and pages of print about this new found ‘messiah'. Never have many words written in praise and exaltation of Jesus Christ himself than I have seen the Herald jumping and ululating all over town about this Dangote fellow. They have dedicated acres and acres of space in their publication so much so that you would think the man has just saved Mother Earth from the HIV scourge or Global Warming! They have written so well about the man I at one moment thought to myself "is the man dead?", since it is African to always say the good about a man on his funeral even though he lived the Devils dream. Maybe a look into the man may reveal what ZANU through the Herald is jumping and ululating all over town about...perhaps there is hope that a piece of silver may fall into the begging bowl after all- we as ZAPU Youth Front are not fooled anyways into believing such clutching at straws by a drowning man.

He is Africa's richest man and has tapped into various African countries such as South Africa, Ghana, Cameroon, Togo and Zambia, the list obviously goes on! He was worth a staggering US$18, 6 Billion in net worth in the beginning of the year. Income believed to be mainly generated through his Dangote Cement and sugar consortiums across the countries earlier on mentioned. The man is also immensely involved in the oil trade and has huge investments in that industry. This makes a good profile of an investor and his money would certainly bring life in any normally functioning economy and may go further with good financial accountability and transparency (a thing alien to our government at present). Obviously this sounds the profile of a person of high business acumen and intellect, one who can tell bare soil and fertile investment ground.

But why would we as ZAPU Youth Front not bite the bait that ZANU is trying to make us swallow as a nation amid the suffering and brutality they have piled upon us in the past three and half decades? Are we to appear the inconvenient youth that wants to rain on the new found glory and hope that the state media so desperately wants us to invest our trust in and throw all belief and zeal of a brighter tomorrow without ZANU in the air just like that? Are we to trust a maiden visit by one Nigerian guy hoodwinked by the Mugabe regime to believe all is well and forget that Brother Itai Dzamara's family and the nation at large is yet to find answers? Are we to forget that we have cast our votes a dozen times and it hasn't meant anything to the fraudulent ruling party that is ZANU? Are we to turn a blind eye to the demise and daily struggles of the unemployed Zimbabweans who have been labeled "illegal vendors" and condemned to the pits of destitution by an overzealous law enforcement and municipality police that has failed to bring to book high ranking officials fingered in numerous corruption scandals that have rocked our economy and pushed investors away? We won't drop what we hold dear and believe in exchange for the fairytales that the government continuously tries to sell to us. We won't budge for investments that will never materialize or bring change for ordinary man on the street in Zimbabwe; we will not jump and ululate for trinkets where we deserve better outcomes. The youth have refused unequivocally to be lured into believing in the biblical manna or miracle wine- this is a case and fight for bread and butter on the table for the employment of the millions of unemployed youths and graduates barely scraping a living in the Diaspora or here in the Motherland. It takes more than one rich man to come to Zimbabwe for the government and its media machinery to fool us! Sooner or later the chickens will come home to roost and the Houdini-type of politics will soon become evident for all to see, it will be a notorious fact that the government is on auto pilot and has no solution to the economic status quo!

On the sidelines, we wonder why the idea of an investor suddenly rings a bell in ZANU ears. Are they not the same lot who have been cursing the whole world and boasting of high sounding nothings like ‘beneficiation of diamonds' and ‘a self sustained agricultural sector' claiming not to need any form of aid from anywhere or anyone particularly the West. What has stopped the mantra ‘keep you're your England and I will keep my Zimbabwe' so much so that we have eagerly banked on the European Delegations to bankroll the government. Where are the friends from the East now that we are glorifying the new ‘North-South' cooperation because one Nigerian mogul has set foot in the country? It's a sad tale we are to relive with the government and its media outlets already going around parading their new investor who would turn-around-the-economy-and-unlock huge-potential-for-growth. They already hailing insults and behaving like the kid with the new uniform who won't stop showing off and aren't aware that the mega deal might not fall through. Talk of counting your chickens before they hatch! But I would simply shudder and ask will being an African stop the capitalist business mind of Mr Dangote from operating like any other capitalist Asian or American? Or is it a question of how much candy has he offered the ‘chefs' to tap into our resources and exploit us as he wants. Perhaps with luck time will tell.
ZAPU Youth Front definitely echoes the words of President Dumiso Dabengwa in his state of the nation address delivered last Thursday that Mugabe has nothing to offer the nation but a concoction of dreams and unimplemented paper policies that always rot in the ‘Out Tray' as the country continues to nose dive into the pits of doom. We will not buy this "Dangote Dream" frenzy for a penny from these clowns in government, never! Remember these are the same guys who believed that refined diesel could ooze from a mountain in Chinhoyi, the same cronies who have religiously put the nations hopes in the hands of some self styled prophets to tell the suffering masses about oil prophesies and what not! This is the same Mugabe regime that has brought in pile upon pile of ‘Mega Deals" from China yet we haven't seen a penny or morsel of it and they dare patronize us with this Dangote shenanigan. How many European and American delegations have been paraded in the press as martyrs who would invest and aide our ailing economy? Didn't Bill Gates, the richest man at some point come and go as stories of him investing in Zimbabwe flood the state media-where are all these potential investors and why haven't they come back with lorries of money to pour into our comatose economy? The answer is quiet simple the ZANU government has not by any chance convinced anyone that they can be trusted to  protect private investments by any level. The current legal framework mainly represented by the Indeginasation Act has shown any sober minded money bags out there that the investment terrain has many flaws hence they won't book the plane to Harare again. The future of the economy is not in the amount of money investors can bring but in a new government that can be trusted to safeguard those investments and create real (not dream) jobs in the process. And as ZAPU we believe that the people shouldn't be fed with stale promises that leave the mouth feeling like a Blair toilet after consuming them. It is time we tell ZANU that the masses won't have any of it any more whether in farming, industry, education or service delivery. The people want the reconstruction of Zimbabwe to be a beautiful and productive country of pride before they can start putting trust in a government that offers nothing but "we died for this country" as a reason to be in governance or blame everything on the West including failing to develop its education curriculum, provide clean water and better health care and security for its citizens!

It's foolish to think that this one visit will change everything and bring the happily ever after in this current state of affairs. It's not as if Mr. Dangote will buy all our problems away no matter how rich he may sound. His money cannot buy the corruption in government nor can it buy back Itai Dzamara and all those abducted by the security machinery over the past years. Certainly his money won't explain away the 1980s genocide or even sanctify the failure to implement the Constitutional changes and law reforms that the country so needs. With all due respect ZAPU Youth Front does not believe that this ‘tourist' can equivocate us from the dire economic and political quagmire prevailing for the past decades. Investor confidence is one area that ZAPU can usher in post 2018 or even sooner all things being equal. We definitely don't find anything amusing about the visit to state house as trade and investment matters are certainly in the hands of the Minister responsible not this hocus pocus where the President or his Deputies engage in a bootlicking shenanigan entertaining a mere business mogul from another country- the five star treatment! A terrible sign of a desperation by a clique trying to save face by all means possible. This is diplomacy definitely gone cheap when the Head of State, Head of Government ,Commander in Chief (and all titles possibly available) plays the role of Minister of Foreign Affairs or Minister of Trade and Industry just to make sure a ‘mega deal' sails through at all costs. You would forget this is the government that has given Nigerians a hard time getting citizenship in favour of the all weather friend from the East, particularly the Chinese.

The ZAPU Youth Front laments that our great nation has become a prostitute that will bend over at every opportunity of getting monetary aid. We certainly ask ourselves the rhetoric on everyone's lips that where are the diamonds? When shall this ‘recipe without ingredients' commonly termed ZIMASSET bring food to the table? ZIMASSET has meant nothing but a term to define a huge behind, that's all it has become and nothing more! We lament the sorry situation where our history is distorted to serve the interests of the few living phonies squandering the heritage left to us by many a gallant son of the soil. We are beggars in our country, an inconvenient youth that they seek to silence. Well we say Zimbabwe is for all Zimbabweans, none is more Zimbabwean than another and everyone deserves a piece of the cake and not illusionary promises made by an elite feasting on our suffering. Whether it's Dangote, Gates or whoever the solution lies not in the giver but the receiver and ZANU has dismally failed to account for well over 10Billion in Foreign Direct Investment and aid. It's time to see and embrace the paradigm shift, a new beginning devoid of the Mugabe Regime.

We respect the role played by Lookout Masuku, we salute okaNyongolo and we are here to liberate!