Opinion / Columnist
We can't condemn Chiwenga when we ourselves are too cowardly to stand up against Zvigananda
8 hrs ago |
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It is easy to play holier-than-thou, but when the very future of a nation hangs in the balance, self-reflection becomes unavoidable.
The recent surge in condemnation of so-called "tenderpreneurs" who have amassed vast wealth through their proximity to political power has sparked intense debate in Zimbabwe.
To directly receive articles from Tendai Ruben Mbofana, please join his WhatsApp Channel on: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaqprWCIyPtRnKpkHe08
Vice President Constantino Chiwenga's bold accusations against this group, known widely as Zvigananda, have shaken the political establishment and struck a nerve with an exhausted population.
These individuals have enjoyed a monopoly on multi-million-dollar public tenders, often bypassing legal procurement procedures, inflating costs, delivering substandard work, or in many cases failing to deliver anything at all.
Their impunity has bled our nation dry, crippling critical services such as healthcare, education, and basic service delivery.
Although Chiwenga has been consistent with his bold anti-corruption stance, mostly targeted at those who have come to be known as Zvigananda since the beginning of this year, his stance has now intensified to a point where it can no longer be ignored.
Earlier in the year he was mocked and even booed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa's loyalists at the Heroes Acre when he repeated his warnings against tender fraudsters.
Yet he persisted, and in a dramatic turn at a recent ZANU-PF Politburo meeting, he finally dropped names that had been whispered about for years.
Kudakwashe Tagwirei, Wicknell Chivayo, Scott Sakupwanya, Paul Tungwarara, and Delish Nguwaya were directly accused of looting billions.
More strikingly, Chiwenga demanded to know why these men had not yet been arrested.
For years, this is the exact question that has been on the lips of ordinary Zimbabweans.
Why is it that individuals linked to glaring acts of corruption continue to enjoy immunity from the law?
How is it that, despite overwhelming public outrage, these figures have not faced even the mildest forms of accountability?
Chiwenga's intervention has thrust this contradiction into the open, giving voice to what many ordinary citizens had quietly thought but lacked the power to forcefully demand.
Naturally, his stance has transformed him almost overnight into a sort of people's champion.
Not because anyone seriously believes Chiwenga is squeaky clean—indeed, most Zimbabweans are under no illusions that any figure within ZANU-PF is untouched by corruption—but rather because in a country drowning under state-authored poverty, where over 80% of the population lives below the poverty datum line, even the hint of action against corruption provides a flicker of hope.
Consider the bitter reality we live under.
Zimbabweans endure power cuts of up to 16 hours a day.
Industries have been crippled, families left in the dark, and small businesses suffocated.
Meanwhile, individuals such as Chivayo receive US$6 million in advance from ZESA for a promised 100 MW solar project in Gwanda that has yet to materialize.
Instead, he flaunts his wealth by handing out luxury cars and wads of cash as if confetti at a wedding.
This is the heartlessness that drives Zimbabweans to despair, while elevating anyone who dares call these men out into a hero, no matter how questionable their own past.
But here lies the contradiction.
Many are quick to reject Chiwenga's newfound zeal.
They point to his checkered history, especially during his time as Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, when reports linked him and other military elites to illicit diamond dealings in Marange.
They argue that his loud anti-corruption posture has nothing to do with principle and everything to do with political survival.
The battle lines within ZANU-PF are well known: Chiwenga and Mnangagwa are locked in a power struggle, each looking to weaken the other's support base.
In this reading, Chiwenga's sudden boldness is not a selfless act of patriotism but a calculated move to discredit Mnangagwa's closest allies, the very Zvigananda who have bankrolled the president's political empire.
This argument is not without merit.
It would be naïve to pretend that Chiwenga's actions are born out of pure conscience.
Yet, in our pragmatism, we must ask: does it matter what motivates him if the outcome is that some of the most brazen looters of our national resources are finally held accountable?
For decades these individuals have enjoyed protection from the highest office in the land.
So who else but someone with clout, power, and influence within ZANU-PF itself could possibly challenge their immunity?
Certainly not you or me.
Certainly not civil society activists, journalists, or opposition politicians, all of whom have exposed these abuses for years without effect.
Our voices, however loud, have changed nothing, because we lack the coercive power that only insiders wield.
This is the uncomfortable truth.
As much as people like myself and others have long raised the alarm about the damage wrought by Zvigananda, we have achieved absolutely nothing.
Even those with the backing of millions of Zimbabweans have refused to translate public anger into meaningful action.
They prefer the safety of words rather than the risk of confronting power.
The reason Zimbabwe remains in such a broken state is not only because of corruption but also because of our collective cowardice.
We are spectators to our own destruction.
So here is the question: if we ourselves lack the courage to stand up to these looters, do we have the right to condemn Chiwenga for doing what we should have done?
At least he is doing something.
At least he has broken the silence and forced the issue into the spotlight.
Whether his motives are pure or politically expedient should not distract us from the fact that Zimbabwe desperately needs someone with the authority to challenge these tenderpreneurs.
Our hospitals are crumbling, with patients dying needlessly for lack of basic drugs and life-saving equipment.
Our schools are underfunded, leaving our children robbed of their futures.
Our towns and cities are collapsing under mountains of uncollected garbage, burst sewer pipes, and chronic water shortages.
All this while a handful of men enrich themselves through public contracts that deliver little or nothing.
And we are supposed to sneer at Chiwenga because he may not be a saint?
That is hypocrisy of the highest order.
Of course, we must remain wary.
It would be foolish to invest blind faith in Chiwenga or anyone within the ruling elite.
But to dismiss his actions out of hand because of his questionable past is equally foolish.
Politics is never clean, and history shows us that sometimes change comes from unlikely sources, driven as much by rivalries and self-interest as by principle.
What matters most to ordinary Zimbabweans is not who benefits politically but whether the parasites sucking our nation dry are finally brought to account.
If we truly want to see an end to the looting, then let us put aside our cynicism long enough to recognize that the fight against Zvigananda must be waged by those with the power to win it.
Until we as citizens find the courage to mobilize en masse, until we shed our fear and demand real change, we are in no position to sneer at those who at least make the attempt.
So let us be honest with ourselves.
We have been cowards.
We have allowed fear, comfort, and self-preservation to paralyze us while our country has been plundered.
We talk, talk, and talk, yet do nothing.
If Chiwenga's actions, however motivated, lead to even one of these looters being reined in, then Zimbabwe will have gained something.
And if that embarrasses us because it was not us who forced the change, then the shame is ours, not his.
At the end of the day, millions of Zimbabweans continue to languish in abject poverty.
Thousands die needlessly because hospitals have no drugs or equipment.
Children's futures are destroyed because schools are left to rot.
If we are willing to let all this continue simply because it is Chiwenga, and not us, who dares to challenge the Zvigananda, then we should be very ashamed indeed.
© Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to WhatsApp or Call: +263715667700 | +263782283975, or email: mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com, or visit website: https://mbofanatendairuben.news.blog/
The recent surge in condemnation of so-called "tenderpreneurs" who have amassed vast wealth through their proximity to political power has sparked intense debate in Zimbabwe.
To directly receive articles from Tendai Ruben Mbofana, please join his WhatsApp Channel on: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaqprWCIyPtRnKpkHe08
Vice President Constantino Chiwenga's bold accusations against this group, known widely as Zvigananda, have shaken the political establishment and struck a nerve with an exhausted population.
These individuals have enjoyed a monopoly on multi-million-dollar public tenders, often bypassing legal procurement procedures, inflating costs, delivering substandard work, or in many cases failing to deliver anything at all.
Their impunity has bled our nation dry, crippling critical services such as healthcare, education, and basic service delivery.
Although Chiwenga has been consistent with his bold anti-corruption stance, mostly targeted at those who have come to be known as Zvigananda since the beginning of this year, his stance has now intensified to a point where it can no longer be ignored.
Earlier in the year he was mocked and even booed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa's loyalists at the Heroes Acre when he repeated his warnings against tender fraudsters.
Yet he persisted, and in a dramatic turn at a recent ZANU-PF Politburo meeting, he finally dropped names that had been whispered about for years.
Kudakwashe Tagwirei, Wicknell Chivayo, Scott Sakupwanya, Paul Tungwarara, and Delish Nguwaya were directly accused of looting billions.
More strikingly, Chiwenga demanded to know why these men had not yet been arrested.
For years, this is the exact question that has been on the lips of ordinary Zimbabweans.
Why is it that individuals linked to glaring acts of corruption continue to enjoy immunity from the law?
How is it that, despite overwhelming public outrage, these figures have not faced even the mildest forms of accountability?
Chiwenga's intervention has thrust this contradiction into the open, giving voice to what many ordinary citizens had quietly thought but lacked the power to forcefully demand.
Naturally, his stance has transformed him almost overnight into a sort of people's champion.
Not because anyone seriously believes Chiwenga is squeaky clean—indeed, most Zimbabweans are under no illusions that any figure within ZANU-PF is untouched by corruption—but rather because in a country drowning under state-authored poverty, where over 80% of the population lives below the poverty datum line, even the hint of action against corruption provides a flicker of hope.
Consider the bitter reality we live under.
Zimbabweans endure power cuts of up to 16 hours a day.
Industries have been crippled, families left in the dark, and small businesses suffocated.
Meanwhile, individuals such as Chivayo receive US$6 million in advance from ZESA for a promised 100 MW solar project in Gwanda that has yet to materialize.
Instead, he flaunts his wealth by handing out luxury cars and wads of cash as if confetti at a wedding.
This is the heartlessness that drives Zimbabweans to despair, while elevating anyone who dares call these men out into a hero, no matter how questionable their own past.
But here lies the contradiction.
Many are quick to reject Chiwenga's newfound zeal.
They point to his checkered history, especially during his time as Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, when reports linked him and other military elites to illicit diamond dealings in Marange.
They argue that his loud anti-corruption posture has nothing to do with principle and everything to do with political survival.
The battle lines within ZANU-PF are well known: Chiwenga and Mnangagwa are locked in a power struggle, each looking to weaken the other's support base.
In this reading, Chiwenga's sudden boldness is not a selfless act of patriotism but a calculated move to discredit Mnangagwa's closest allies, the very Zvigananda who have bankrolled the president's political empire.
This argument is not without merit.
It would be naïve to pretend that Chiwenga's actions are born out of pure conscience.
Yet, in our pragmatism, we must ask: does it matter what motivates him if the outcome is that some of the most brazen looters of our national resources are finally held accountable?
For decades these individuals have enjoyed protection from the highest office in the land.
So who else but someone with clout, power, and influence within ZANU-PF itself could possibly challenge their immunity?
Certainly not you or me.
Certainly not civil society activists, journalists, or opposition politicians, all of whom have exposed these abuses for years without effect.
Our voices, however loud, have changed nothing, because we lack the coercive power that only insiders wield.
This is the uncomfortable truth.
As much as people like myself and others have long raised the alarm about the damage wrought by Zvigananda, we have achieved absolutely nothing.
Even those with the backing of millions of Zimbabweans have refused to translate public anger into meaningful action.
They prefer the safety of words rather than the risk of confronting power.
The reason Zimbabwe remains in such a broken state is not only because of corruption but also because of our collective cowardice.
We are spectators to our own destruction.
So here is the question: if we ourselves lack the courage to stand up to these looters, do we have the right to condemn Chiwenga for doing what we should have done?
At least he is doing something.
At least he has broken the silence and forced the issue into the spotlight.
Whether his motives are pure or politically expedient should not distract us from the fact that Zimbabwe desperately needs someone with the authority to challenge these tenderpreneurs.
Our hospitals are crumbling, with patients dying needlessly for lack of basic drugs and life-saving equipment.
Our schools are underfunded, leaving our children robbed of their futures.
Our towns and cities are collapsing under mountains of uncollected garbage, burst sewer pipes, and chronic water shortages.
All this while a handful of men enrich themselves through public contracts that deliver little or nothing.
And we are supposed to sneer at Chiwenga because he may not be a saint?
That is hypocrisy of the highest order.
Of course, we must remain wary.
It would be foolish to invest blind faith in Chiwenga or anyone within the ruling elite.
But to dismiss his actions out of hand because of his questionable past is equally foolish.
Politics is never clean, and history shows us that sometimes change comes from unlikely sources, driven as much by rivalries and self-interest as by principle.
What matters most to ordinary Zimbabweans is not who benefits politically but whether the parasites sucking our nation dry are finally brought to account.
If we truly want to see an end to the looting, then let us put aside our cynicism long enough to recognize that the fight against Zvigananda must be waged by those with the power to win it.
Until we as citizens find the courage to mobilize en masse, until we shed our fear and demand real change, we are in no position to sneer at those who at least make the attempt.
So let us be honest with ourselves.
We have been cowards.
We have allowed fear, comfort, and self-preservation to paralyze us while our country has been plundered.
We talk, talk, and talk, yet do nothing.
If Chiwenga's actions, however motivated, lead to even one of these looters being reined in, then Zimbabwe will have gained something.
And if that embarrasses us because it was not us who forced the change, then the shame is ours, not his.
At the end of the day, millions of Zimbabweans continue to languish in abject poverty.
Thousands die needlessly because hospitals have no drugs or equipment.
Children's futures are destroyed because schools are left to rot.
If we are willing to let all this continue simply because it is Chiwenga, and not us, who dares to challenge the Zvigananda, then we should be very ashamed indeed.
© Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to WhatsApp or Call: +263715667700 | +263782283975, or email: mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com, or visit website: https://mbofanatendairuben.news.blog/
Source - Tendai Ruben Mbofana
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