Opinion / Columnist
Zimbabwe @42 where exactly did we go wrong?
18 Apr 2022 at 07:40hrs | Views
It really pains me when I look at what my country has become today four decades into independence. We have regressed so much.
I couldn't think that one day I would board a plane to a war torn country like Somalia but I did in 2008 December and lived there for a year in a shanty tiwn called Galckayo about 750km from Mogadishu.
That was the year I left the police force because of poor salaries and remunerations.
Zimbabwe used to be a bread basket and we used to have one of the strongest currencies in the region but everything fell by the wayside and today Zimbabwe is now something else.
Born in the early 70s, I was one of the luckiest person to see the dawn of a year era. A country born out of blood of it's sons and daughters of the revolutionary struggle who fought the colonial system to usher a new Zimbabwe under the black leadership.
I happened to see the last months of the colonial era, witnessed it's bad and good sides.
The Bishop Abel Mzorowa and Chikerema the appointed puppets of the regime inherited a lucrative country. Though under sanctions the regime strived to make sure that it's population both white and black had enough to eat, enough cheap fuel, good health care system, good road network. Functioning industries where people were employed in shifts night and day.
Electricity was always available throughout the year and we had running and clean water in our suburbs. We rarely encountered sewage on the streets of the townships and dysfunctional ablution in towns and cities.
The new government led by the late Robert Mugabe inherited an unpolished jewel of Africa from Ian Smith and was supposed to polish it.
Zimbabwe had a false start in 1980, the revolution lost its lustre on the way unlike other African states.
I vividly remember going to do some shopping with my mother and would come back home with a basket full of groceries worth only $2. Things were very cheap and readily available. We produced our own products serve for a few which we imported.
At school we used to get a bunch of exercise books for free. Later things started changing. We failed to maintain the status quo.
Years later we started witnessing land grabs across the country, displacements of commercial farmers under the land reform exercise. The idea of taking back the land and giving it to the rightful owner was not bad but it was done through frustration and was not well managed.
We started feeling the effects of land grabbing at our granaries where there were very little produce coming in and we started importing food to feed the nation.
Most companies started closing relocating to neighbouring countries citing poor economic environment and today they continue to change goal posts with the latest exodus being Standard & Chartered Bank which has recently closed business in Zimbabwe.
Email - konileonard606@gmail.com
Twitter - @Leokoni
+27616868508
I couldn't think that one day I would board a plane to a war torn country like Somalia but I did in 2008 December and lived there for a year in a shanty tiwn called Galckayo about 750km from Mogadishu.
That was the year I left the police force because of poor salaries and remunerations.
Zimbabwe used to be a bread basket and we used to have one of the strongest currencies in the region but everything fell by the wayside and today Zimbabwe is now something else.
Born in the early 70s, I was one of the luckiest person to see the dawn of a year era. A country born out of blood of it's sons and daughters of the revolutionary struggle who fought the colonial system to usher a new Zimbabwe under the black leadership.
I happened to see the last months of the colonial era, witnessed it's bad and good sides.
The Bishop Abel Mzorowa and Chikerema the appointed puppets of the regime inherited a lucrative country. Though under sanctions the regime strived to make sure that it's population both white and black had enough to eat, enough cheap fuel, good health care system, good road network. Functioning industries where people were employed in shifts night and day.
Electricity was always available throughout the year and we had running and clean water in our suburbs. We rarely encountered sewage on the streets of the townships and dysfunctional ablution in towns and cities.
The new government led by the late Robert Mugabe inherited an unpolished jewel of Africa from Ian Smith and was supposed to polish it.
Zimbabwe had a false start in 1980, the revolution lost its lustre on the way unlike other African states.
I vividly remember going to do some shopping with my mother and would come back home with a basket full of groceries worth only $2. Things were very cheap and readily available. We produced our own products serve for a few which we imported.
At school we used to get a bunch of exercise books for free. Later things started changing. We failed to maintain the status quo.
Years later we started witnessing land grabs across the country, displacements of commercial farmers under the land reform exercise. The idea of taking back the land and giving it to the rightful owner was not bad but it was done through frustration and was not well managed.
We started feeling the effects of land grabbing at our granaries where there were very little produce coming in and we started importing food to feed the nation.
Most companies started closing relocating to neighbouring countries citing poor economic environment and today they continue to change goal posts with the latest exodus being Standard & Chartered Bank which has recently closed business in Zimbabwe.
Email - konileonard606@gmail.com
Twitter - @Leokoni
+27616868508
Source - Leonard Koni
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