"Prisons not fit for human habitation," says First Lady - please spare us the sauce N Garikai

New brooms sweep clean! President Mnangagwa and his wife are certainly trying very hard to give credence to that maxim.

“First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa took a swipe at prison authorities and the Ministry In Charge of Prisons for the appalling conditions at the country’s prisons,” reported Zimeye.

“The First Lady may have quickly forgotten that her husband Emmerson Mnangagwa who is now the President was until a month ago the Minister of Justice responsible for prisons. “I visited the places where you, sleep, bath and even eat and was shocked because the place are not fit for human habitation,” said the First Lady.

“She promised the inmates in front of the prison authorities and Ministry officials who had accompanied that the conditions in the prison must be worked on and completed by end of January next year. Mrs Mnangagwa shared Christmas goodies with the 180 female inmates in the prison which also houses 15 children under the age of 12 who are staying with their mothers in the filthy conditions.”

Well, well! Instead of a new broom we have the same old broom, instead of sweeping the dirty it is raising a lot of duct to attract attention! We have a busy-body First Lady who is fishing for limelight coverage. One day she is in a hospital masquerading as a patient, the next day she is carrying a street-kid on her back and today she has been exchanging niceties with prison inmates. Promising to end all these people’s suffering; she is just getting cheap publicity at these people’s expense because she will not end their suffering.

Zimbabwe’s public institutions such as the hospitals and prisons are in a sorry state because of decades of neglect and poor funding. Decades of misrule and corruption by this Zanu PF regime has resulted in the country’s economic meltdown; compounding the ordinary people’s lives who are totally dependent on these public institutions and cannot afford anything else.

Until something is done to cure the cancers of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption, there is very little anyone can do to improve the lives of street kids, to improve funding to hospitals and prisons, etc. In turn, until something is done to stop Zanu PF rigging elections, there nothing one can do cure the nation of these cancerous tumours of mismanagement and corruption.

Zimbabwe’s economy is in serious economic meltdown because the nation is stuck these last 37 years and counting with a corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF regime that has been rigging elections to stay in power.

First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa, is a simpleton still she is, nonetheless, aware of the rampant corruption in Zimbabwe. She and her husband are part of Zimbabwe’s few filthy rich ruling elite and she is aware of the grown chasm that has opened the rich and the filthy poor majority. She knows that her husband, President Mnangagwa, is one of the richest individuals in Zimbabwe and that he was named as one of the Zimbabweans involved in the wholesale looting by Zimbabweans in DRC. Even a simpleton like her would know that filthy rich have amassed their wealth at the expense of the impoverished majority.

So, if our First Lady is serious about end the economic suffering of the poor she tackle the root cause poverty - corruption. The question she must answer is: is she ready to ask her husband to stop his looting and give up the creature comforts and luxuries it has brought?   

Instead of dealing with the nation’s problems head-on our First Lady thinks she have her cake and eat it too, keep the looting and her luxuries and end the poverty by waving a magic wand.

First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa, like her husband, has waited for 37 years to be First Lady and now that she has final achieved that position, she is relishing every second of it. Nothing would please her more than if she was to be Zimbabwe’s own Glinda, the Good Witch of the North in Wizard of Oz. Following her recent visit to one hospital; a few months later, wallah! Every hospital and clinic in Zimbabwe is spotless clean, has a full complement of qualified nurses and doctors, has nothing but the most modern equipment money can buy and has well stocked medicine cabins.

By the end of January next year, as she promised, wallah! All prisons in Zimbabwe have got rid of all their lice infested bedding and inmates are treated to a Hotel California style five course meal complete with pink champion on ice.

My prediction is none of Glinda’s wishes would ever come true and as the nation approach the next elections she would look more and more like Miss Almira Gulch, the Wicked Witch of the West. For one thing, she will be play her part all the usual dirty vote rigging tricks her husband and Zanu PF have always employed to retain power at all cost. It is simply not in the DNA of a Zanu PF Wicked Witch, male or female, to risk losing absolute power by holding free, fair and credible elections.  

Such is the insufferable arrogance of bullies and tyrants, they not only deliberately inflict all the suffering and deaths on others. The odd occasion, they are forced to acknowledge the misery of their victims; they feign shock that anyone should suffer, make a big song and dance about ending the suffering and yet promptly forget they ever made such a promise.

“Prisons are not fit for human habitation!” says Zimbabwe’s First Lady. Will you, Mrs Mnangagwa, join those demanding the implementations of the democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections? If not, then please spare us all the empty rhetoric and tomato sauce! The right to free and fair elections is not a privilege; woe to you all Zanu PF thugs who have ridden roughshod over our people’s freedoms, human rights, hopes and dreams and their very human dignity for your selfish gain!