Opinion / Columnist
Mr Mnangagwa what's stopping you from arresting criminals?
24 Aug 2022 at 06:49hrs | Views
DEAR President Emmerson Mnangagwa,
Your Excellency, never has the yearning for freedom manifested itself with intensity. Although citizenry has been gradually concerned by the progressive fall of livelihoods, they are now restive.
Their aspirations for civility have dwindled to bare minimum on the backdrop of overall failure of credibility test by social institutions, the Presidency included.
As I see it, your threats of severe punishment to deposit-taking institutions that failed the credibility test thrust my mind back to your initial inauguration. Methinks, your assertiveness as you read the riot act to them was reminiscent of the caution you pronounced against land barons and corrupt bigwigs.
"Let no one ever think that my administration will flinch from, or hesitate to take corrective action, however drastic. In addition, the size of the offenders means nothing to us. We will come for you once you dawdle in the unlawful and unethical," you asserted.
Your Excellency, it is cause for concern that out of the 16 deposit-taking institutions, only five passed the credibility test. Essentially, the sector is functioning contrary to the terms of their operating licences, as you observed. Aptly, the sector is awash with corruption.
Be that as it may, my recollection of admonitions you vowed in front of God and man are still fresh. When you took the presidential oath following the deposal of the late former President Robert Mugabe, you declared to pursue, without fear or favour, underhand dealers.
Yet, up to now, the threats do not have teeth. Save for a series of catch and release, the threats have largely been all clouds, but no rain. It was an unheard of amateurish omission by the prosecution that two high profile corruption cases were discharged by the High Court.
Your Excellency, it was stranger than fiction that the court acquitted two former ministers sighting that the prosecution had not told the accused of the charges they were indicted for. Methinks, the omissions were by design than by prosecution incompetence.
It is confounding that the Prosecutor-General never felt obligated to refile the cases. Duly, the ineptitude of filing cases with the court without informing the accused of the allegations are an affront to the ideals of judicious delivery of justice. Such debacles are impermissible, even at the headman's court.
Your Excellency, the seething anger at the failure of the credibility test by the deposit-taking institutions is duplicitous. It sounds like righteous indignation at face value. Yet, beneath it conceals double standards. Truly, the Presidency ranks among failures the credibility test.
Yearly, the Auditor-General reports the magnitude of credibility test failure by ministries and State-controlled institutions. Yet, the Presidency also fails the credibility test by lacking remedial strategies of addressing government failure of the credibility test.
Overlooking a corruption conviction in the appointment to Cabinet is a thumbing failure of the credibility test by the Presidency. It is an engagement that plainly renders all talk about corruption eradication to mere pastime. Little wonder, the episodes of catch and release.
Your Excellency, contrarily, the immediate past British Prime Minister Boris Johnson lost the confidence of his Cabinet and party after he failed the credibility test by appointing a blemished member to a key post. He invoked ministerial resignations in a show of politics of conviction.
What a difference with our cult of politics of failed credibility test! There is eloquence in the silence of the Presidency amid the odium of the Pomona Dumpsite saga. Although the deal raises a corruption stench, given that it did not go through tender processes, the Presidency is conspicuous by a non-committal aloofness.
Your Excellency, there is evidence galore to prove claims by the civil society that the so-called new dispensation failed the credibility test. Among the evidence is the bragging by a Zanu-PF bigwig that the armed forces and war veterans were appendages of his party.
In his book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos Or Community, Martin Luther King Jr raised fundamental leadership imperatives. He caught my attention with his conviction that the tide in the affairs of man does not remain in the flood; it ebbs.
He called for a revolution of values, encouraging people of goodwill to challenge the poverty of spirit that inhibits concern for the under privileged. He appealed for urgency, stating that in this unfolding conundrum of life and history, procrastination is still the thief of time.
Your Excellency, time is of essence. It is my fervent prayer that there be at least one among the indigenous church leaders you visit who is as divinely forthright as King Jr. His belief in radical non-violent political struggle is a credible moral route to the creation of brotherhood.
If such one churchman was likewise spirited, most of the citizenry who celebrated the fall of Mugabe could not be ruing their spontaneity. Sadly, for them, lamentation and tears became their portion in the immediate aftermath of their resounding cheers.
They are mourning, even cursing their impulsivity. They are regretful for instantly hitting the roof of the sky with happiness over the token power change. Citizenry, be they scattered in the diasporas or within, are united in grief, sorrowful for their beloved country.
Your Excellency, my choicest accompaniment during my formative years in the early 1970s was the book, Cry the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton. It engrossed my then tender mind and stimulated my faculties.
It is the literary works that reframed the Christian values of political aloofness my mother had inculcated in me. Fish scales fell off my eyes. I encountered the verity that one cannot be the salt and light of society at the avoidance of participation in public affairs.
Yet, it never dawned on me that I would ever cry for my beloved country. Now, like all my compatriots, I am heartbroken and crying for my beloved Zimbabwe. If I were writing with ink on paper, duly, my editor would witness evidence of teardrops blotting on my script.
Your Excellency, failure of the credibility test has permeated all sectors, including universities. As I see it, deposit-taking institutions are a tip of the iceberg. Methinks probity implores you to heed the King Jr presage: "Eventually, the yearning for freedom manifests itself."
Cyprian Muketiwa Ndawana is a public speaking coach, motivational speaker, speechwriter and newspaper columnist.
Your Excellency, never has the yearning for freedom manifested itself with intensity. Although citizenry has been gradually concerned by the progressive fall of livelihoods, they are now restive.
Their aspirations for civility have dwindled to bare minimum on the backdrop of overall failure of credibility test by social institutions, the Presidency included.
As I see it, your threats of severe punishment to deposit-taking institutions that failed the credibility test thrust my mind back to your initial inauguration. Methinks, your assertiveness as you read the riot act to them was reminiscent of the caution you pronounced against land barons and corrupt bigwigs.
"Let no one ever think that my administration will flinch from, or hesitate to take corrective action, however drastic. In addition, the size of the offenders means nothing to us. We will come for you once you dawdle in the unlawful and unethical," you asserted.
Your Excellency, it is cause for concern that out of the 16 deposit-taking institutions, only five passed the credibility test. Essentially, the sector is functioning contrary to the terms of their operating licences, as you observed. Aptly, the sector is awash with corruption.
Be that as it may, my recollection of admonitions you vowed in front of God and man are still fresh. When you took the presidential oath following the deposal of the late former President Robert Mugabe, you declared to pursue, without fear or favour, underhand dealers.
Yet, up to now, the threats do not have teeth. Save for a series of catch and release, the threats have largely been all clouds, but no rain. It was an unheard of amateurish omission by the prosecution that two high profile corruption cases were discharged by the High Court.
Your Excellency, it was stranger than fiction that the court acquitted two former ministers sighting that the prosecution had not told the accused of the charges they were indicted for. Methinks, the omissions were by design than by prosecution incompetence.
It is confounding that the Prosecutor-General never felt obligated to refile the cases. Duly, the ineptitude of filing cases with the court without informing the accused of the allegations are an affront to the ideals of judicious delivery of justice. Such debacles are impermissible, even at the headman's court.
Your Excellency, the seething anger at the failure of the credibility test by the deposit-taking institutions is duplicitous. It sounds like righteous indignation at face value. Yet, beneath it conceals double standards. Truly, the Presidency ranks among failures the credibility test.
Yearly, the Auditor-General reports the magnitude of credibility test failure by ministries and State-controlled institutions. Yet, the Presidency also fails the credibility test by lacking remedial strategies of addressing government failure of the credibility test.
Overlooking a corruption conviction in the appointment to Cabinet is a thumbing failure of the credibility test by the Presidency. It is an engagement that plainly renders all talk about corruption eradication to mere pastime. Little wonder, the episodes of catch and release.
Your Excellency, contrarily, the immediate past British Prime Minister Boris Johnson lost the confidence of his Cabinet and party after he failed the credibility test by appointing a blemished member to a key post. He invoked ministerial resignations in a show of politics of conviction.
What a difference with our cult of politics of failed credibility test! There is eloquence in the silence of the Presidency amid the odium of the Pomona Dumpsite saga. Although the deal raises a corruption stench, given that it did not go through tender processes, the Presidency is conspicuous by a non-committal aloofness.
Your Excellency, there is evidence galore to prove claims by the civil society that the so-called new dispensation failed the credibility test. Among the evidence is the bragging by a Zanu-PF bigwig that the armed forces and war veterans were appendages of his party.
In his book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos Or Community, Martin Luther King Jr raised fundamental leadership imperatives. He caught my attention with his conviction that the tide in the affairs of man does not remain in the flood; it ebbs.
He called for a revolution of values, encouraging people of goodwill to challenge the poverty of spirit that inhibits concern for the under privileged. He appealed for urgency, stating that in this unfolding conundrum of life and history, procrastination is still the thief of time.
Your Excellency, time is of essence. It is my fervent prayer that there be at least one among the indigenous church leaders you visit who is as divinely forthright as King Jr. His belief in radical non-violent political struggle is a credible moral route to the creation of brotherhood.
If such one churchman was likewise spirited, most of the citizenry who celebrated the fall of Mugabe could not be ruing their spontaneity. Sadly, for them, lamentation and tears became their portion in the immediate aftermath of their resounding cheers.
They are mourning, even cursing their impulsivity. They are regretful for instantly hitting the roof of the sky with happiness over the token power change. Citizenry, be they scattered in the diasporas or within, are united in grief, sorrowful for their beloved country.
Your Excellency, my choicest accompaniment during my formative years in the early 1970s was the book, Cry the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton. It engrossed my then tender mind and stimulated my faculties.
It is the literary works that reframed the Christian values of political aloofness my mother had inculcated in me. Fish scales fell off my eyes. I encountered the verity that one cannot be the salt and light of society at the avoidance of participation in public affairs.
Yet, it never dawned on me that I would ever cry for my beloved country. Now, like all my compatriots, I am heartbroken and crying for my beloved Zimbabwe. If I were writing with ink on paper, duly, my editor would witness evidence of teardrops blotting on my script.
Your Excellency, failure of the credibility test has permeated all sectors, including universities. As I see it, deposit-taking institutions are a tip of the iceberg. Methinks probity implores you to heed the King Jr presage: "Eventually, the yearning for freedom manifests itself."
Cyprian Muketiwa Ndawana is a public speaking coach, motivational speaker, speechwriter and newspaper columnist.
Source - NewsDay Zimbabwe
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.
