Disgusting donations at Lucifer's oversubscribed dinner

Reports that ZANU PF's fundraising dinner for the annual conference to be held early December in Victoria Falls was "oversubscribed" did not come as a surprise though it certainly raises some questions.

Those who know how ZANU PF has systematically looted parastatals and private companies for as long as we can remember, will not find it strange that the same mafia has managed to have what they called an "oversubscribed dinner" where the cheapest table went for USD30, 000 while the top end was pegged at USD100, 000, with Jonathan Moyo's "Lizard" presiding.

There are three scenarios that quickly come to mind when one is confronted with such figures; the first is that there is lots of money in Zimbabwe, the second one is that our priorities are misplaced and the third one is that we have some people in Zimbabwean who don't know or appreciate the value of money especially that of the American dollar. I'm more inclined to believe that it is a matter of warped priorities coupled with dangerous politics of patronage.

For years, especially in the last decade, Mpilo Hospital, Harare Hospital and lately even Parirenyatwa Hospital, have all been reduced to institutions of dying rather than treatment and recovery. Talking about district and provincial hospitals, in this context, is a waste of time. They are all ghosts and shadows of what they used to be in the early 1980s when Zimbabwe appeared to be on the right path. As a result, several of our poor and desperate people have been left with no option except to resort to miraculous healing where they are fleeced daily by unscrupulous men and women who pretend to have supernatural powers including those of the cloth. This can be a subject for another day.

If our captains of industry had any semblance of dignity, they wouldn't scramble for a seat at Lucifer's table and pay a whopping USD100, 000 just to listen to someone narrating fairy tales about how great ZANU PF is when it has destroyed every dream we used to have.

Why would anybody with working senses part with a Dime only to seat next to those that have destroyed Africa's once most promising economy? Are they saying "thank you for destroying Zimbabwe?" Wouldn't it make sense to put that money, or just a fraction of it, into our hospitals, clinics and schools? In a country where clean running water is now a luxury, wouldn't it be better to invest that kind of money into our waterworks or even fix a few potholes on some of our roads?

Can those executives stand in front of a mirror, feel good and say to themselves, "I've made a great contribution to this country?" by making disgusting donations to ZANU PF? How do those who run struggling parastatals such as ZINWA, ZESA, NRZ, ZBC, GMB etc. feel when they make exorbitant sponsorship to Lucifer's dinner while Zimbabweans have no running water, electricity, trains and can't get paid for their produce at GMB?

How do employees who work hard for peanuts which they hardly get on time, feel when their employer is in the newspapers for writing a blank cheque at a ZANU PF dinner? Why doesn't ZANU PF use what they have looted over the years to fund their operations? Why didn't they just sell a few carats from Marange that they are certainly hiding somewhere? Why does Zimbabwe need Dangote when it can afford to burn millions of American dollars in one night to finance a useless shindig called people's annual conference? And those who think they are paying protection fees to ZANU PF, why would they go to such an extent to protect a business that is not making any reasonable profits?

Not long ago, Dzikamai Mavhaire was in the news for having made an inappropriate donation to Joice Mujuru while he was Minister for Energy and Power Development where he reportedly siphoned $40,000 from ZESA. Why is it appropriate now for the same organisations to make hefty donations to ZANU PF at a dinner? Isn't it clear to anybody that the result of the two actions is the same; a bleeding economy?

We were also told that Mugabe's portraits were auctioned during the function. While nobody would give a hoot about the auctioning of a dinosaur's portrait at a private function for thugs without conscience, the organisers would probably have made more money if they had sold more portraits of Zimbabwe's most entertaining clown at the moment, Queen Jezebel, who reduces comedians like Mukadota, Paraffin, Gringo, mai Sorobhi, even Chinos to kindergarten levels once she gets access to the microphone.

Those who continue abusing state resources to appease their political masters, must be made to account one day. The encouraging story of Myanmar must teach us that everything comes to an end no matter how long it takes, including political madness.

Moses Chamboko is a pro-democracy activist and interim Secretary General for ZUNDE. He writes in his private capacity.