Mushonga stop stoking tribal fires, unemployment is a serious national problem and not a regional one

Moses led the Children of Israel from Egypt, a land in which they were slaves for generations, to the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey. Of course, no one can ever say for certain, but one can say with some certainty that without Moses many Jews would have perished along the way and never reached their destination.

So, one of the qualities of a great leader is to lead the people to a good destination without one's guidance many, if any at all, who have never reached. The converse is the bad leader who will encourage and even coerce people to go into the depths of hell itself! Zimbabwe has had the great misfortune of having these devilish leaders.

There is no debate that in Robert Gabriel Mugabe we have Zimbabwe's answer to Germany's Adulf Hitler. Mugabe has turned a nation that took great pride in being the breadbasket of the region into one that is failing to feed itself. We are starving in the land that, for all practical purposes is the Garden of Eden; in a day and age when human ingenuity has turn deserts in blooming orchards, such is the damning testimonial of Mugabe's failed leadership.

On the political front Mugabe has ridden roughshod over the people's hopes and dreams of freedom, liberty, peace, human rights and a fair share of the nation's riches. To establish and retain his de facto one-party (Zanu PF) cum one-man (Robert Mugabe) dictatorship the tyrant has systematically denied the people their fundament human rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections and even the right to life. Mugabe has murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans in pursuit of his insatiable greed for absolute power and material wealth.

A Zimbabwe where 90% of our people are unemployed, 72.3% of us live on US$1.00 or less a day making Zimbabweans the poorest in Africa, people have lost hope and self-respect, etc. is the hell-on-earth. This is not the Zimbabwe we wanted, Mugabe dragged us here!

There is a glimmer of hope of finally ending Mugabe and his Zanu PF dictatorship's reign of terror; the regime is imploding, the rotten core cannot hold and things are falling apart. It is most disconcerting that there are some failed politicians who willing to take up from where Mugabe left and drag the nation even deeper into this hell for their own selfish political gain.

When people like MP Priscilla Misiharabwi-Mushonga talk of Matabeleland being "marginalized" in parliament she is not trying to avoid a civil war but stoking one in a desperate effort to boost her chances of being re-elected back into parliament. Unemployment has soared to 90% plus, 72.3% of the people live on US$ 1.00 per day or less, etc. these are appalling statistic applicable in the whole country. Unless the Right Honourable MP can produce the evidence to prove, it is irresponsible to such sweeping allegations.

She was citing the case of Wellcash debt collectors describing them as an institution highlighting the gravity of marginalisation in Zimbabwe.

According to her, the company has taken over debt collection in every corner of the country basing on a human resource base that is predominantly Shona and male.

"It does not make sense to me that in a country where you have Mashonaland, Manicaland, why not just find the lawyers that are resident in that particular province to do the job that is there," she said.

Unemployment is a very serious problem in Zimbabwe, no parliament has utterly failed to deal with otherwise we would not be talking of the dizzying heights of 90% plus. The case of Wellcash debt collectors, whatever its merit, will do nothing to reduce the runaway unemployment rate and therefore should have been raised with relevant company or minister and not waste valuable parliamentary time.

Let us be absolutely clear here, the people of Zimbabwe risked life and limb to elect MP Priscilla Misiharabwi-Mushonga and her fellow MDC colleagues into power on the promise they will deliver the democratic changes necessary to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. As she can see the dictatorship is still here and thriving. MDC had many golden opportunities, the best of which were during the GNU, to implement the democratic reforms which would have ended the dictatorship but wasted them all.

"Mazivanhu eMDC adzidzi kudya anyerere!" (MDC people have learnt to enjoy the gravy train lifestyle and not rock the boat!) Zanu PF cronies used to boast during the GNU when the world asked why MDC leaders were not implementing the reforms.

MP Misiharabwi-Mushonga has not only been an MP for years, she one of the ministers in the bloated GNU. Like the rest of her MDC colleagues, she too was too busy enjoying herself she forgot why she was in the GNU. There will be refresh parliamentary elections next years and she has been frantically fighting to be noticed.

Misihairabwi warned of the high likelihood of civil unrest as Ndebeles are now frustrated of being labelled tribalists when they are raising purely marginalisation issues.

"We are not trying to do political mileage, we are not trying to be tribalistic but we are actually talking about something that is so serious that unless it is addressed," she said.

"And I keep saying this in this House, unless we address this thing, one day we are going to be in a civil war in this country.

"You cannot continue to treat a particular people in a particular attitude and expect that they will not stand up to that kind of oppression."

The danger of social unrest is real, the present economic situation that has driven unemployment to the nauseating heights of 90% plus, left 72.3% living on US$1.00 or less per day, etc. is socially, morally and politically unsustainable. The danger of more street protests, we saw many last year, or worse is real but to suggest such unrest will be confined to one region or tribe is mischievous, to say the least.

Rebuilding Zimbabwe from the four decades of ruinous Mugabe corrupt and tyrannical rule will be hard work but we will make the work even harder for ourselves if we are going to go into the work a divided nation with each fighting for his/her own tribe, region, village, etc. It is utterly intolerable that those who betrayed the nation and failed to deliver the reforms they promised should be the ones exploiting the misery of the people to cover for their own incompetence.

The people of Zimbabwe, not just those in one region, are angry with Mugabe and his thugs for dragging them into this economic and political hell-hole. You, MP Misiharabwi-Mushonga, are driving a regional wedge between the people just to engender yourself with the people in that region because they have been questioning your pathetic performance as MP and minister. We are sick and tired of corrupt and incompetent leaders who want to drag us where we go not want to go. We do not want a civil war, you are stoking it for your own selfish reason.