Chickens respond better than Zimbabwe people

There is something that keeps me up at night and today I decided to share it with my fellow Zimbabweans. What makes me worried is what I call the Zimbabwe character. Our behavior, our responses, our expectations from other people is absurd at best. We are worse than chicken; at lease chicken cry for help when faced with danger. Our people have reached a level of docility that is scary. We expect other people to help us as Leonard Dembo said in his song, Ruva Rashe.



I use kombis to go places; sometimes a catch a ride from private drivers or the other pirate vehicles I don't know their classification. Every time I get in a kombi, people are packed there like sacks of cornmeal. The designation outside the car says 15 people but there almost always 25 or more people packed like rats in the kombi.

In earlier days, there will be two people on the front passenger seat but today, there will be four people in front of the kombi. On one occasion, the driver asked the passenger to sit on his lap. As ridiculous as it sound, no one in the kombi complained about the dangers caused by the reckless actions of the kombi driver. To make matters worse, the kombi was stopped by the police soon after Beatrice and the policeman just accepted a bribe and we were on our risk venture. The driver started speeding like a possessed man and I asked to be dropped off.  The driver acted like he now had an ear infection; he did not even listen to me—other people joined in cautioning the driver that he was over speeding. We stopped in Chivhu and this was my chance to step out and wait for a ZUPCO bus.

This incident made me think. If our country has to change; that change must start with us the people. Why do people still tolerate the abuse by kombi operators considering the carnage on our roads? I don't care if ZANU PF or MDC wins the next election; none of them will change anything. The change must start with us, requiring people who provide service to be accountable and responsible.

We can never develop a country when we cannot be independent in the way we think and do things. Mnangagwa or Chamisa is not going to force people to be loaded in a kombi like rats. People need to take responsibility and refuse to board or be dragged in a kombi. If we are to move towards a develop county, we must do away with kombis. There are no kombis in developed countries.

We should not wait for Chiwengwa, as right as he is, to tell us to stop paying the rates when there is no service delivery. This must not be a political solution - we the Zimbabwean people must know that we have rights; no water no rates. How can that be hard?

Right now we are excited about the elections. All the politicians are in agreement that the country was taken to the dogs. We are in more trouble than we want to accept. No political solution will solve our problems. What is needed is a solution that gives us greater control of our own future, hope, happiness, and prosperity. This can only be achieved by setting up a Sovereign National Conference that includes political parties, trade unions, civil servants, students, religious leaders, the military, Zimbabweans living abroad, civic leaders, and ordinary Zimbabweans.

A political solution will not lift Zimbabwe out of its current state.