You can tell where the lion has been from the huge paw
prints!
“For those who are still in denial, it is worth
restating: Zimbabwe is broken. Its people are broken. Their minds and spirits
are broken. The infrastructure is broken - rotting, in fact. And,
unsurprisingly, the image of our country is in tatters,” wrote Trevor Ncube in
his article, “Only a 'Third
Way' can fix Zimbabwe”. What great
opening lines!
In my humble opinion, Ncube’s opening stand head and
shoulder together with Alan Paton’s equally memorable opening lines in “Cry,
the beloved country”. “There is a lovely
road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass-covered and
rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it.”
Could not agree with you more Trevor; Zimbabwe is broken
and in desperate need of fixing. You are placing your hopes of a new Zimbabwe
on the youth.
“My greatest hope for Zimbabwe lies in our young people
who seem not to have been contaminated by our limiting politics and
debilitating milieu. My sagging spirits have been lifted by this new
generation, one unburdened by colonial baggage,” you said.
“This is a can-do generation that could catapult us into
our future if it is empowered.”
Where the fcuk (pardon my French) have these can-do youth
been hiding all these years whilst the country sunk to these nauseating depths
of despair and hopelessness!
If these can-do youths are indeed the “can-do generation”
– as it says on the tin – then why do they need to be “empowered”? They are
waiting to be empowered by whom?
These can-do youths are a myth; they are like the
beautiful ones who are yet to be born! Youth has become an over rated attribute,
a silver bullet; if you have youth on your side then you do not need anything
else, especially in our political discourse.
Look at the Zanu PF and its Generation 40 (G40) faction,
they have been complaining that the war vets should not be flaunting their liberation
war credentials because they are no guarantee for competent leadership and yet
they have been flaunting their youths as if that was the guarantee. Indeed, for
all their avowed faith in youth it is the G40 faction that is fighting tooth
and nail to keep Mugabe is power. Grace Mugabe, the G40’s leader, has
repeatedly said Mugabe must stay in office even if it means getting him a
wheelchair! One should be careful of what they wish for!
Grace will have to get her husband the wheelchair sooner
than she thought! At 92 years of age Mugabe is old and has been stumbling and
falling in public. She will have to keep him strapped to his wheelchair too because
he now dozes off at the drop of a hat, even when he is standing up!
I too have hope that this broken country can be fixed and
become a great nation. If we can start to think and reason as we should have
been doing all along then there is no reason why we cannot fix what has been
broken and, better still, strike out and build anew a greater then we can dare
imagine at present. We are in this mess
because of Mugabe and Zanu PF corruption and brutal oppression but this would
not have happened if we had not switch-off and taken French leave of our
senses!
Yes we have been subjected to all manner of physical and mental
abuse by Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs but that will never explain why we then
risked life and limp to vote for a corrupt, incompetent and “pedestrian” opposition,
as Ncube called it?
“Zimbabwe also needs a new constitution,” as Ncube
rightly pointed out. “The current document is the outcome of horse-trading
between Zanu-PF and the two MDC factions. It fails to lay a strong foundation
of the rule of law, strong national institutions, transparency and
accountability. And, of course, the sanctity of life and respect for private
property must find full expression.”
The worst thing the pedestrian MDC opposition did was
failing to implement even one democratic reform in the five years of the GNU. We
are in this political and economic mess because Mugabe was able to blatantly
rig the July 2013 elections because the democratic reforms required to stop the
vote rigging were never implemented. And yet even with all the evidence that
MDC sold-out many Zimbabweans still continue to sheepishly follow MDC - proof they are still on French leave
mentally!
Zimbabwe has some of the best land to produce all the
food the nation needs with plenty left over for export, for example. For the last
decade the country has failed to produce enough to feed our own people. We are
starving in the Garden of Eden – proof we are on French leave mentally.
Zimbabwe is a broken country because as a nation we have
taken leave of our senses. To fix the broken nation and to go on to soar to
even greater heights all we need for the nation to start thinking and listen to
voice of reason.
It is not the can-do youths who can fix this nation but
more the can-think nation. Thinking is not the preserve of the young or the old
alone; anyone can think. Even Mugabe and Mai Mahofa and their harahwa and
chembere generation, Tsvangirai and Joice Mujuru and their sekuru and mbuya
generation, Biti and Grace Mugabe and their tsumborume and mvanha generation,
school leavers and everybody; they can all think.
Granted it is not everyone who can be the competent and
visionary leader the nation needs; still, a thinking populous will separate the
wheat from the chuff – depend on it.
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