Opinion / Columnist
'We want regime change!' clamoured Mt Pleasant 'fat cows'. They did not get it, punishment for decades of navel-gazing
26 Feb 2024 at 17:01hrs | Views
A picture is worth a thousand words. A recent Zimbabwe Daily cartoon was one such picture. It depicted Mt Pleasant resident family, the fat cows in Pharaoh's dream, shouting "We want change! Ngaapinde hake mukomana!" on one side. On the other side a Mbare resident family, the thin cows, shouting "Zanu PF huchi! ED pfeee!"
The cartoon is six months after the 23 August 2023 elections which Zanu PF won and so one would think the Mbare family would be happy. The Zimbabwe economy has not recovered, if anything it is worse. The rate of inflation, for example, has soared 400% in six month. And it is the poor, who are at the bottom of the economic parking order, who suffer the worst.
"Zanu PF huchi (honey)!" the poor shouted before the elections. Zanu PF are wasps, they sting is extremely painful and for what, you certainly do not get any honey from that lot.
For the record, Zanu PF did rig the elections and so whether the poor freely supported the regime or where frogmarched is now academic what matters is the regime was not going to lose an elections it had carte blanche powers to rig. All the election observers including SADC, AU and even Zimbabwe's own ZHRC condemned the elections process as flawed and illegal.
The cartoon was mocking the Mt Pleasant, the affluent, educated and professionals in Zimbabwe society.
The Mt Pleasant residents were conned by Chamisa and Fadzayi Mahere, CCC MP candidate, into participating in flawed 2023 elections, believing CCC would win big. Chamisa said he had plugged all the Zanu PF vote rigging loop holes. "God is in it!" he said repeatedly. And they, the country's intelligentsia, creme de la creme, believe these lies. CCC have failed to secure even something as basic as a verified voters' roll, for Pete's sake!
Chamisa, Mahere and the rest of the CCC leaders knew with no reforms implemented Zanu PF would rig the elections and that the nation's participation would only give the regime legitimacy. Still they were hell bent on participating because they also knew that Zanu PF was giving away a few gravy train seats as bait - bait they found irresistible.
Chamisa and company were lying about having all these winning in rigged elections strategies to hide their real reason for participating was greed.
It is bad enough Chamisa and company conning my aunt and nephew in the rural back waters, even them it is inexcusable given this has been going on for 23 years, not the affluent urbanites too. There is no excuse why urbanites should not know that MDC/CCC leaders are corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless given the well documented account of their failure to implement even one token reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. The truth is many of them have no clue and hence the reason why they were easily conned by Chamisa and company.
It is only in the last decade or so that the Mt Pleasant residents have shown an interest in politics after decades of political indifference or, worse still, of actively supporting Zanu PF. The decades of Zanu PF misrule have seen the leafy suburb's manicured lawns, tarred cycle tracks, etc. of the 1980s disappear. The roads are full of potholes, there is a chronic shortage of water to drink, the big houses are in varying stages of rot and decay. High inflation, unemployment and economic shortages affect everyone across the board.
The tide of economic poverty is reached everyone and spared none. Leafy Mt Pleasant is being transforming into just another Mbare ghetto. The overweight affluent busy bodies are losing more than their body weight and looking more like the gaunt and ill-dressed ghetto dwellers.
The regime change the affluent Zimbabweans are clamouring for will not happen easily because Zanu PF has captured state and public institutions to consolidate its iron grip on absolute power. If they had not wasted decades navel gazing they would know that CCC is Zanu PF team B in all but name, at least.
One only hopes that the economic and political reality in Zimbabwe will now force the country's affluent to take the challenges of electing competent leaders with the seriousness and urgency the matter demands.
The cartoon is six months after the 23 August 2023 elections which Zanu PF won and so one would think the Mbare family would be happy. The Zimbabwe economy has not recovered, if anything it is worse. The rate of inflation, for example, has soared 400% in six month. And it is the poor, who are at the bottom of the economic parking order, who suffer the worst.
"Zanu PF huchi (honey)!" the poor shouted before the elections. Zanu PF are wasps, they sting is extremely painful and for what, you certainly do not get any honey from that lot.
For the record, Zanu PF did rig the elections and so whether the poor freely supported the regime or where frogmarched is now academic what matters is the regime was not going to lose an elections it had carte blanche powers to rig. All the election observers including SADC, AU and even Zimbabwe's own ZHRC condemned the elections process as flawed and illegal.
The cartoon was mocking the Mt Pleasant, the affluent, educated and professionals in Zimbabwe society.
The Mt Pleasant residents were conned by Chamisa and Fadzayi Mahere, CCC MP candidate, into participating in flawed 2023 elections, believing CCC would win big. Chamisa said he had plugged all the Zanu PF vote rigging loop holes. "God is in it!" he said repeatedly. And they, the country's intelligentsia, creme de la creme, believe these lies. CCC have failed to secure even something as basic as a verified voters' roll, for Pete's sake!
Chamisa, Mahere and the rest of the CCC leaders knew with no reforms implemented Zanu PF would rig the elections and that the nation's participation would only give the regime legitimacy. Still they were hell bent on participating because they also knew that Zanu PF was giving away a few gravy train seats as bait - bait they found irresistible.
Chamisa and company were lying about having all these winning in rigged elections strategies to hide their real reason for participating was greed.
It is bad enough Chamisa and company conning my aunt and nephew in the rural back waters, even them it is inexcusable given this has been going on for 23 years, not the affluent urbanites too. There is no excuse why urbanites should not know that MDC/CCC leaders are corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless given the well documented account of their failure to implement even one token reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. The truth is many of them have no clue and hence the reason why they were easily conned by Chamisa and company.
It is only in the last decade or so that the Mt Pleasant residents have shown an interest in politics after decades of political indifference or, worse still, of actively supporting Zanu PF. The decades of Zanu PF misrule have seen the leafy suburb's manicured lawns, tarred cycle tracks, etc. of the 1980s disappear. The roads are full of potholes, there is a chronic shortage of water to drink, the big houses are in varying stages of rot and decay. High inflation, unemployment and economic shortages affect everyone across the board.
The tide of economic poverty is reached everyone and spared none. Leafy Mt Pleasant is being transforming into just another Mbare ghetto. The overweight affluent busy bodies are losing more than their body weight and looking more like the gaunt and ill-dressed ghetto dwellers.
The regime change the affluent Zimbabweans are clamouring for will not happen easily because Zanu PF has captured state and public institutions to consolidate its iron grip on absolute power. If they had not wasted decades navel gazing they would know that CCC is Zanu PF team B in all but name, at least.
One only hopes that the economic and political reality in Zimbabwe will now force the country's affluent to take the challenges of electing competent leaders with the seriousness and urgency the matter demands.
Source - zimbabwelight.blogspot.com
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.
