Opinion / Columnist
How can Mnangagwa preach selflessness when his regime is master of self-interest and plunder?
4 hrs ago | Views
It often seems that before lecturing others on morality, some people should first look in the mirror.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa's Heroes Day interview with the state-controlled broadcaster ZBC would have made for an inspiring lesson on patriotism - if only the preacher himself did not preside over the greatest violators of the very principles he so passionately espoused.
To directly receive articles from Tendai Ruben Mbofana, please join his WhatsApp Channel on: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaqprWCIyPtRnKpkHe08
His call for Zimbabwe's youth to shun personal gain and instead dedicate themselves to the service of the nation is noble in theory.
In practice, however, it rings hollow in a country whose leadership has become a global case study in corruption, cronyism, and the looting of national resources.
For years now, the Mnangagwa administration and those in its inner circles have been accused of plundering state resources, awarding inflated contracts to political allies, and pillaging the nation's wealth at the expense of ordinary Zimbabweans.
This is not conjecture - these allegations have been repeatedly documented in investigative reports, parliamentary inquiries, and media exposés, both local and international.
The President's sanctimonious warning to the younger generation to "avoid self-interest" is painfully ironic when set against the backdrop of his government's own track record.
Only recently, Zimbabweans learnt of the R1.1 billion paid to South African company Ren-Form CC ostensibly for election materials, with a staggering R800 million reportedly transferred into business accounts linked to politically connected businessman Wicknell Chivayo under unclear circumstances.
Chivayo's name has also been linked to a nearly US$500 million tender for the supply of cancer machines - awarded to a South African-registered company created just months before - raising more questions than answers about the probity of the process.
This is but one example in a long and sordid list.
Kudakwashe Tagwirei's meteoric rise, fuelled by controversial acquisitions of state assets like shares in ZB and CBZ banks, murky mining operations through Kuvimba Mining House, fuel deals, and the questionable Dema Diesel Power Plant deal, stands as a glaring indictment of a government that claims to champion public interest.
Obey Chimuka, a Tagwirei associate, has benefitted, through his Fossil Contracting company, from contracts like the $114 million job to construct the Trabablas Interchange - a project awarded under dubious circumstances, at a cost far exceeding that of similar, more advanced interchanges in other countries.
Paul Tungwarara's companies have been similarly favoured, from borehole drilling contracts to an alleged $15 million tender to build a precast wall around State House.
His firm, Prevail International, is also leading a US$500 million cyber city development in Mt. Hampden.
In all these instances, procurement laws appear to have been conveniently ignored - and the beneficiaries happen to be individuals with close ties to the ruling elite.
Worse still, while the President waxes lyrical about selflessness and sacrifice, communities across Zimbabwe are being displaced by Chinese mining companies operating in collusion with politically connected figures.
These ventures, often in diamond, lithium, coal, and black granite mining, have uprooted families without consent or fair compensation, leaving behind environmental devastation.
Entire mountains, such as those in Shurugwi, are being razed, rivers poisoned with chemicals, and ecosystems destroyed - all while the wealth extracted flows into private pockets, not local development.
Meanwhile, ordinary citizens are paying the price of this plunder.
Zimbabwe's healthcare system is in freefall.
Public hospitals operate without basic medicines, life-saving equipment, or sufficient staff.
Those who remain in service are demoralized by pitiful salaries and working conditions, leading to a mass exodus of doctors and nurses - many of whom now work as caregivers abroad.
The President's own government has presided over this collapse, yet has the audacity to invoke the memory of war-time sacrifice while doing little to restore even the most basic dignity to the sick and dying.
Our education system is no better.
In rural areas, children still learn under trees or in crumbling, unsafe buildings.
They have no textbooks, chairs, or desks, and qualified teachers are a rarity due to low pay and poor conditions.
This is a betrayal of the very ideals the liberation struggle was fought for - ideals of empowerment, equality, and opportunity.
Instead, we are raising a generation with little hope for the future, while the connected few send their own children to expensive private schools or abroad.
The economy itself is a monument to misrule.
Over 90% of Zimbabweans are unemployed, forced to scrape by in the informal sector.
Basic services like electricity and clean water have become luxuries.
Urban homes go for years without a drop from their taps.
Power cuts stretch for hours every day.
And yet, vast sums are being siphoned off into the bank accounts of the politically connected, or blown on vanity projects that bring no tangible benefit to the ordinary citizen.
This is the reality under post-independence ZANU-PF leadership, including Mnangagwa himself.
Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of Africa and one of the continent's most industrialized nations, has been systematically dismantled into a cautionary tale of how to destroy a country in record time.
That the President can stand before the nation and lecture young people about selflessness, while presiding over a regime that has become masters of looting, is an act of political theatre bordering on insult.
If we are to speak honestly, it is our post-colonial leaders - not the youth - who have prioritised personal enrichment over national interest.
They have betrayed the very people and ideals for which thousands sacrificed their lives in the liberation war.
Heroes Day should be a moment to honour those sacrifices by living out their vision for a free, prosperous, and just Zimbabwe.
Instead, the day is reduced to hollow speeches and political grandstanding by those who have fatally undermined the dream.
If the spirits of the fallen could speak, they would demand accountability, transparency, and service to the people - not enrichment of a select few.
They would weep at the sight of liberation credentials being used as a shield for corruption.
Even many living war veterans have been discarded, left to wallow in the same poverty as the rest of the population, remembered only when their loyalty is needed for political campaigns and rewarded with token gifts.
President Mnangagwa's call for young people to emulate the sacrifices of his generation might have carried weight if his government had itself modelled such sacrifice.
But a leader cannot credibly demand integrity from the youth while turning a blind eye - or worse, giving a green light - to the grand corruption consuming the nation.
You cannot preach against self-interest when your inner circle is feasting on the nation's carcass.
On Heroes Day, we should be asking a different question: Who truly betrayed Zimbabwe?
The answer is painful, but clear.
It is those who inherited a free nation and squandered it, those who turned the victory of the liberation struggle into an opportunity for personal empire-building.
Until they themselves walk the talk, their lectures to the youth will remain empty words, drowned out by the sound of looted wealth leaving our borders.
If the youth become selfish and greedy, it is because they have witnessed the actions of those in power.
They have learned that corruption in Zimbabwe not only thrives but also pays handsomely.
The truest way to honour our heroes is not through speeches, but by restoring the values they fought for - justice, equality, service, and sacrifice for the greater good.
Until that day comes, the greatest act of patriotism the youth can perform is to reject the hypocrisy of those in power and demand a Zimbabwe worthy of the blood that was shed for it.
● 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/
President Emmerson Mnangagwa's Heroes Day interview with the state-controlled broadcaster ZBC would have made for an inspiring lesson on patriotism - if only the preacher himself did not preside over the greatest violators of the very principles he so passionately espoused.
To directly receive articles from Tendai Ruben Mbofana, please join his WhatsApp Channel on: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaqprWCIyPtRnKpkHe08
His call for Zimbabwe's youth to shun personal gain and instead dedicate themselves to the service of the nation is noble in theory.
In practice, however, it rings hollow in a country whose leadership has become a global case study in corruption, cronyism, and the looting of national resources.
For years now, the Mnangagwa administration and those in its inner circles have been accused of plundering state resources, awarding inflated contracts to political allies, and pillaging the nation's wealth at the expense of ordinary Zimbabweans.
This is not conjecture - these allegations have been repeatedly documented in investigative reports, parliamentary inquiries, and media exposés, both local and international.
The President's sanctimonious warning to the younger generation to "avoid self-interest" is painfully ironic when set against the backdrop of his government's own track record.
Only recently, Zimbabweans learnt of the R1.1 billion paid to South African company Ren-Form CC ostensibly for election materials, with a staggering R800 million reportedly transferred into business accounts linked to politically connected businessman Wicknell Chivayo under unclear circumstances.
Chivayo's name has also been linked to a nearly US$500 million tender for the supply of cancer machines - awarded to a South African-registered company created just months before - raising more questions than answers about the probity of the process.
This is but one example in a long and sordid list.
Kudakwashe Tagwirei's meteoric rise, fuelled by controversial acquisitions of state assets like shares in ZB and CBZ banks, murky mining operations through Kuvimba Mining House, fuel deals, and the questionable Dema Diesel Power Plant deal, stands as a glaring indictment of a government that claims to champion public interest.
Obey Chimuka, a Tagwirei associate, has benefitted, through his Fossil Contracting company, from contracts like the $114 million job to construct the Trabablas Interchange - a project awarded under dubious circumstances, at a cost far exceeding that of similar, more advanced interchanges in other countries.
Paul Tungwarara's companies have been similarly favoured, from borehole drilling contracts to an alleged $15 million tender to build a precast wall around State House.
His firm, Prevail International, is also leading a US$500 million cyber city development in Mt. Hampden.
In all these instances, procurement laws appear to have been conveniently ignored - and the beneficiaries happen to be individuals with close ties to the ruling elite.
Worse still, while the President waxes lyrical about selflessness and sacrifice, communities across Zimbabwe are being displaced by Chinese mining companies operating in collusion with politically connected figures.
These ventures, often in diamond, lithium, coal, and black granite mining, have uprooted families without consent or fair compensation, leaving behind environmental devastation.
Entire mountains, such as those in Shurugwi, are being razed, rivers poisoned with chemicals, and ecosystems destroyed - all while the wealth extracted flows into private pockets, not local development.
Meanwhile, ordinary citizens are paying the price of this plunder.
Zimbabwe's healthcare system is in freefall.
Public hospitals operate without basic medicines, life-saving equipment, or sufficient staff.
Those who remain in service are demoralized by pitiful salaries and working conditions, leading to a mass exodus of doctors and nurses - many of whom now work as caregivers abroad.
The President's own government has presided over this collapse, yet has the audacity to invoke the memory of war-time sacrifice while doing little to restore even the most basic dignity to the sick and dying.
Our education system is no better.
In rural areas, children still learn under trees or in crumbling, unsafe buildings.
They have no textbooks, chairs, or desks, and qualified teachers are a rarity due to low pay and poor conditions.
This is a betrayal of the very ideals the liberation struggle was fought for - ideals of empowerment, equality, and opportunity.
Instead, we are raising a generation with little hope for the future, while the connected few send their own children to expensive private schools or abroad.
Over 90% of Zimbabweans are unemployed, forced to scrape by in the informal sector.
Basic services like electricity and clean water have become luxuries.
Urban homes go for years without a drop from their taps.
Power cuts stretch for hours every day.
And yet, vast sums are being siphoned off into the bank accounts of the politically connected, or blown on vanity projects that bring no tangible benefit to the ordinary citizen.
This is the reality under post-independence ZANU-PF leadership, including Mnangagwa himself.
Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of Africa and one of the continent's most industrialized nations, has been systematically dismantled into a cautionary tale of how to destroy a country in record time.
That the President can stand before the nation and lecture young people about selflessness, while presiding over a regime that has become masters of looting, is an act of political theatre bordering on insult.
If we are to speak honestly, it is our post-colonial leaders - not the youth - who have prioritised personal enrichment over national interest.
They have betrayed the very people and ideals for which thousands sacrificed their lives in the liberation war.
Heroes Day should be a moment to honour those sacrifices by living out their vision for a free, prosperous, and just Zimbabwe.
Instead, the day is reduced to hollow speeches and political grandstanding by those who have fatally undermined the dream.
If the spirits of the fallen could speak, they would demand accountability, transparency, and service to the people - not enrichment of a select few.
They would weep at the sight of liberation credentials being used as a shield for corruption.
Even many living war veterans have been discarded, left to wallow in the same poverty as the rest of the population, remembered only when their loyalty is needed for political campaigns and rewarded with token gifts.
President Mnangagwa's call for young people to emulate the sacrifices of his generation might have carried weight if his government had itself modelled such sacrifice.
But a leader cannot credibly demand integrity from the youth while turning a blind eye - or worse, giving a green light - to the grand corruption consuming the nation.
You cannot preach against self-interest when your inner circle is feasting on the nation's carcass.
On Heroes Day, we should be asking a different question: Who truly betrayed Zimbabwe?
The answer is painful, but clear.
It is those who inherited a free nation and squandered it, those who turned the victory of the liberation struggle into an opportunity for personal empire-building.
Until they themselves walk the talk, their lectures to the youth will remain empty words, drowned out by the sound of looted wealth leaving our borders.
If the youth become selfish and greedy, it is because they have witnessed the actions of those in power.
They have learned that corruption in Zimbabwe not only thrives but also pays handsomely.
The truest way to honour our heroes is not through speeches, but by restoring the values they fought for - justice, equality, service, and sacrifice for the greater good.
Until that day comes, the greatest act of patriotism the youth can perform is to reject the hypocrisy of those in power and demand a Zimbabwe worthy of the blood that was shed for it.
● 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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