When the late Solomon Mujuru died is a mysterious fire on his farm outside Harare; the Harare Fire truck arrived at the farm many hours after they had been notified of the fire. Peter Lobels, a US based businessmen and son of the founder of Lobels Bakery, and his wife who visited the Harare Fire Department at the time decried the deplorable state of disrepair of department’s trucks and equipment.
“This is crazy,” Mrs Lobels said. “We have a commitment to uplifting the people of Zimbabwe and one of the ways is through providing better services.”
The Lobels donated two fire trucks to Harare Fire Department.
Commitment to uplifting the lives of the people of Zimbabwe and providing them better services!? Well that was certainly double Dutch to Mrs Mujuru and would be to Mugabe and the rest of Zimbabwe’s ruling elite. For is it not the thirty years of the greed, corruption and looting by the ruling elite that is the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic melt down and collapse of even the most basic services like education, health and, in this case, fire prevention?
The Mujurus have reportedly amassed a fortune after all the years of corruption and looting. The farm where Mujuru died was looted from a white farmer who driven off with little more than the shirt he was wearing. The farm, like all the other looted farms, was never put to full productive use cause a steep drop in agricultural production and the precipitous national economic decline. A very familiar story in Zimbabwe!
The people know they live in abject poverty because of the years of rampant mismanagement, corruption and looting. They are powerless to do stop it; they have been systematically and ruthlessly denied a meaningful say in the governance. Another familiar story in Zimbabwe!
The donated Fire Trucks were received by a “tearful” Mrs Mujuru. The ruling elite like to officiate on such occasions. Indeed, they demand to be there; as many donors in Zimbabwe would testify. The Mujurus’ amassed fortune exceeds that of Mr Lobels and yet it would be unthinkable of her to donate the trucks even when she stood to benefit too as is clearly the case here. Still she had to be there because no one else other than the ruling elite should ever be seen as capable of doing anything to improve the lives of the masses. Donors who have failed to observe this protocol have been kicked out of the country leaving the aid recipients to suffer.
“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who will guard the guards themselves?)” AskedJuvenal Satires, Roman poet & satirist (55 AD - 127 AD.
Yes who indeed will guard the guards themselves if they should be corrupt! The task becomes near impossible if the guards are themselves the legislators, enforcers, the judges, the jury and executioners and the victims are not Roman citizens who understand their entitlement to the full protection of the law but voiceless slaves! Zanu PF “guards” have become nothing short of demigods and have ruled accordingly!
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Chief Lucious Chitsinde Negomo of Chiweshe in Mashonaland Central Province has summoned Prime Minister Tsvangirai to his court for breaking an old custom forbidding one to marry in the month of November! With all Zimbabwe’s problems one would think the Chief would have more important things to do.
Chief Negomo, how many children are sick and dying because the clinics and hospitals in Chiweshe have closed or they are so poorly equipped and staffed to be of any help? We all know the route cause of this human tragedy and yet you have done nothing. In your infinite wisdom you think pursuing Tsvangirai for marrying in November is what you are there for?
Before independence Zimbabwe had leaders like Chief Tangwena, a man of courage and vision. Today from the village-heads, to the Chiefs, to MPs, Ministers, Prime Minister and his Deputies right up to the President himself and his Vice Presidents; none of them have shown they have common sense let alone courage and vision. Zimbabwe’s economic and political mess is a man-made problem; for the last three decade the nation has pursued policies that defy common sense!
The Zanu PF dictatorship has brainwashed and stifled this nation. It swept away the light of reason, truth, love and justice and replaced it with the darkness of fear and ignorance. Out of this culture of fear only scum can rise to the top, to be leaders!
1 comment:
How do we, in all honesty, go around begging for US$336 million to feed starving children when Mugabe alone has gobbled up a cool US$45 million in foreign travel this year alone! Add what the nation is spending on his "professional" student daughter, Bona; the wife blew US$ 1 million in a dodgy vehicle deal; millions are disappearing in the black hole in Marange; etc. The GNU has changed nothing, the ruling elite still continued to spend millions on luxuries and expect donors to meet the basic needs of the most vulnerable people in our society!
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