Latest News Editor's Choice


Opinion / Columnist

For every bad move that Johanna makes, they have a very good explanation

16 Dec 2016 at 06:42hrs | Views
Education and common sense are more often than not compatible, but one is extremely compromised by the deficiency of the other. The similarity in temperament of the two is barely discerned in the modern day Africa, because of the barbaric and savagery governance displayed by most African leaders.

It is common sense that, nothing changed around an ordinary man's life after many countries attained independence, except the renaming of cities and streets from colonial names to indigenous ones, and in some special cases the changing of the national anthems, as well as the replication and adaptation of the concept of money, decorated with the face of the incumbent dictator in some instances, and the usage of insignificant papers and coins and unashamedly calling them means of exchange.

 It is unfortunate that most African leaders are only political hypocrites and shrewd wolves dressed in sheep's clothes, who grudgingly dislodged the white colonialists, only for their personal aggrandisement, and took over their inhumane and appalling fascism, before they went on to 'modernise' racism and apartheid into tribalism and 'black empowerment'.

What is more disheartening is, while the former colonial masters are busy mapping out business strategies to develop their economies, our African leaders are busy crafting authoritarian laws to protect themselves; carting in exploitive laws through the back door, and resurrecting old repressive pieces of legislature to bolster their new version of 'colonialism', and to prop up their beautifully dysfunctional governments.

The uniformity of their political frolics is so nauseating, that one is tempted to think the African congregations such as the SADC and the AU were formed with the sole intention of grooming dictators. What I liked most about Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin and others dictators is, they explicitly affirmed their dictatorship. Not these 'Duly Elected' African presidents who doctor constitutions to prolong their stay in power to loot the country's resources and torment fellow Africans.

Recently, they had the temerity to pull out of International Criminal Court (ICC) en mass, in order evade the ICC's checks and balances and a watchful eye on human rights abuses practised by their oppressive governments. The bottom line is they want to legitimise their totalitarian conduct in the name of sugar-coated mantras such as sovereignty and preaching democracy as if the word has a new meaning in Africa.

This pride of African leaders is obviously made up of some seemingly highly educated and well read people, with serious psychological issues who cannot be trusted as presidents, but as clowns and jesters. They are only known for their eloquence and verbal diarrhoea.

On the other hand, some are dim-witted morons became presidents by accident because their credentials are only regarded when hoodlums are recruiting new yobs.

 This has made SADC and AU over blown assemblages of some presidents' perverse fantasies derived from preconceived notions brought about to hoodwink unsuspecting citizens. So we should not be on pins and needles over the probity of such political cartels. We should not take them serious.

So many opposition parties who in the past sought redress from these organizations after a misunderstanding with their opposite numbers, were left disillusioned after their complaints were trampled to a million smithereens by these gangsters who pretend to represent Africa's interests.

Can someone explain to us the meaning of these animals called rerun or run off and Government of National Unity (GNU), and their honourable aftermath effects on Africa socially and economically? If they are not beneficial to us, I think whoever is responsible for preparing this concoction used during run offs should be thrown into a dungeon because he is the most horrible electoral chef that exited under the sun.

Hundreds have lost their lives while thousands were left homeless in Kenya, when Uhuru Kenyatta, ordered a rerun in early 2008, before the creation of a GNU, and in June the same year Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe adapted the same concept. After that it became a norm for every African country to have a rerun yet the costs are so appalling.

In South Africa, Julius Malema has already shown he is a stooge of African National Congress (ANC), after he hinted on a merger between ANC and his Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), if ANC happens to lose the forthcoming 2019 election, which shows his party was formed as a buffer to the already wobbly ANC. When responding on e-TV's programme, 'The Check Point', Malema openly admitted that his party is willing to join ANC if it loses.

My million dollar question is; why wasting the country's resource and risking the lives of your fellow country- men when you really know what you have up the sleeve. What boggles many people's minds is, after throwing tens of millions of dollars down the drain conducting a rerun; they have the audacity of blaming the west for their economic woes.

The economic quagmire that Africa is currently treading through, has left a lot of Africans living below the poverty living below the poverty datum line, as investor confidence is shrinking by day, corruption is becoming the order of the day, and parastatals are tottering and at the brink of collapse, due to crippling debts running into hundreds of millions of dollars if not billions.

At the moment the two countries worth comparing are Zimbabwe and South Africa's parastatals. South Africa's broadcasting utility, the SABC, just like the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), which is hanging on a thin thread of life; is reeling under a 210 million Rand debt, while South African Airways (SAA), like Air Zimbabwe which is left with only one plane, has to be bailed out with four billion Rand. Did the west have a hand in destroying these companies? Is it the west that awarded SABC chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng bonuses of more than R11 million or Happison Muchechetere an obscene salary and benefits? Was it the west that built Nkandla in South Africa whose costs were estimated to be over R246 millions or were they partners during the construction of 'Grace Lands' in Zimbabwe? It's a Big NO.

 It is now dawning on many observers, that it only needs two decades after the white man hands over power to a black president to see the economy going topsy-turvy. The two countries should be taken as a case study on how a black man can destroy his country and turn around to blame the west.

 In Zimbabwe, from 1980 to 2000 there was still something to write home about the country's economy, while in South Africa, from 1994 to 2014 the economy was still running before it starts limping in the past two years, and collapse is so imminent. So blaming the west for their bungle is the most awful insult to our intelligence as Africans.

However, the reasons for the collapse vary from imagined sanctions by the west, sabotage by the opposition parties or corruption spanning over two or three decades, and threats to deal with the culprits have lost taste as no one having the guts to spit them.

Garikai Mafirakureva is a Zimbabwean Journalist and an independent analyst. He writes in his own capacity. Feedback on garrymafirakureva09@gmail.com

Source - Garikai Mafirakureva
All articles and letters published on Bulawayo24 have been independently written by members of Bulawayo24's community. The views of users published on Bulawayo24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Bulawayo24. Bulawayo24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.