Opinion / Columnist
Grace Mugabe rally hand-out is all the economic empowerment many will ever get!
19 Nov 2015 at 22:21hrs | Views
Grace Mugabe is fast earning the reputation of the rich aunt who does not visit often but when she does brings lots and lots of goodies. She was in Mbare today and she did not disappoint.
She donated 250 tonnes of maize and 115 tonnes of rice, which are to be distributed to Zimbabweans "irrespective of their political affiliation", we are told. Her first born son, Russel, and his friends, brought goodies too; tonnes of salt, 3 tonnes sugar and 3000 litres of cooking oil to be shared to 600 elderly women in Mbare through Mbuya Hwiza.
Hand-outs; is this the new meaning of economic empowerment and mass prosperity?
This was a political rally to garner public support for herself and her party Zanu PF; no one would dispute that. What is worrying here that Zanu PF as the party in government has resigned itself to buying votes with immediate term solutions like food hand-outs and nothing to address the nation's short, medium or long term problems.
Grace's donation will be gratefully received by the hundreds of thousands of young, fit and strong Zimbabweans who because of the country's 90% runaway unemployment rates are just as destitute are the old and sick. These people would rather work than be destitute.
Two things are disconcerting about Grace's new hand-out economic empowerment:
- It is a curse and not a blessing because only a tiny fraction of those who are destitute ever get any of these hand-outs so this is just a publicity stunt nothing more.
- Grace and her son have never held a regular day job and fill tax returns so the money used to buy all these goodies is looted money. They are using wealth looted from us the people to buy votes so they can loot even more from us!
"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest," said the economist Adam Smith.
To paraphrase Adam Smith; it is not from the false benevolence of Grace Mugabe and her son that the nation should expect its next meal, whatever hand outs they donate are bought from looted wealth and it is the wholesale looting that underwrite our poverty. Our next meal and economic empowerment and prosperity will only come out of good governance and our own honest hard work.
She donated 250 tonnes of maize and 115 tonnes of rice, which are to be distributed to Zimbabweans "irrespective of their political affiliation", we are told. Her first born son, Russel, and his friends, brought goodies too; tonnes of salt, 3 tonnes sugar and 3000 litres of cooking oil to be shared to 600 elderly women in Mbare through Mbuya Hwiza.
Hand-outs; is this the new meaning of economic empowerment and mass prosperity?
This was a political rally to garner public support for herself and her party Zanu PF; no one would dispute that. What is worrying here that Zanu PF as the party in government has resigned itself to buying votes with immediate term solutions like food hand-outs and nothing to address the nation's short, medium or long term problems.
Grace's donation will be gratefully received by the hundreds of thousands of young, fit and strong Zimbabweans who because of the country's 90% runaway unemployment rates are just as destitute are the old and sick. These people would rather work than be destitute.
Two things are disconcerting about Grace's new hand-out economic empowerment:
- It is a curse and not a blessing because only a tiny fraction of those who are destitute ever get any of these hand-outs so this is just a publicity stunt nothing more.
- Grace and her son have never held a regular day job and fill tax returns so the money used to buy all these goodies is looted money. They are using wealth looted from us the people to buy votes so they can loot even more from us!
"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest," said the economist Adam Smith.
To paraphrase Adam Smith; it is not from the false benevolence of Grace Mugabe and her son that the nation should expect its next meal, whatever hand outs they donate are bought from looted wealth and it is the wholesale looting that underwrite our poverty. Our next meal and economic empowerment and prosperity will only come out of good governance and our own honest hard work.
Source - Patrick Guramatunhu
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