I wonder sometimes at the choices of people in positions of power Our Dear Leader has made. It would be myopic to place the entire burden of responsibility for our economic and social quagmire on his shoulders. Yet, surely the man who answers to no one when making these appointments must bear a large portion of the blame.

Having had to assemble my own crack team for a project recently, I am beginning to understand the difficulties of placing the right person in the right position, and, trusting that person to do their job the way I wish it done. Sometimes I am disappointed, and sometimes it works out. Having a relationship with that person makes it difficult to criticise them, especially when there is always an excuse for work that is not done properly.

Today’s Newsday reports that while speaking at the funeral of Rtd. General Mujuru Our Dear Leader ‘conceded he was surrounded by wannabes and corrupt people, but admitted there was nothing he could do to stop the virus.’ The article goes on to say that he is becoming increasingly lonely following the deaths of his closest comrades.

While Our Dear Leader is only a man, and an old man at that, he cannot be everywhere to watch everyone at once, despite what the ZANU PF Women’s and Youth Leagues would have us believe. That is the purpose of organisation and bureaucracy, but even the soundest strategy can fail without adequate leadership at every level. In many respects it is a case of letting things get out of hand, and for that he is solely to blame. In the terms of his own paternal metaphor: a father is supposed to punish his children when they do wrong, not reward them with more trips abroad, more power, a continued stay in office, and protection from would-be opponents.

Our Dear Leader is in his twilight now, a time for much reflection. If gossip and rumour are to be believed, he is making plans for an exit strategy, but in whose hands will he place the burden of steering Zimbabwe and the party into the future? Who will replace him in executing his vision? Even those who are quickest to point to his failings, have themselves failed in this regard.  The leaders of organisations to whom we would entrust with safeguarding us against avaricious and power-hungry party and government officials are themselves afflicted with the very same demons. The MDCs, with their factionalism, and embarrassing public infighting, can hardly claim the moral high ground. Civil society is not blameless either, with founder-directors refusing to vacate office to make way for a renewal of ideas.

Our leaders regardless of where their spheres of influence lie are afraid of change, and ironically it is those who have the loudest voices in calling for it that are most afraid. As many have said before me, ours is a crisis of leadership. But as a society, we should look to ourselves before we point to the failings of our leaders. Our leaders reflect who we are; if they are corrupt it is because we allow them to be so. If they are avaricious it is because we allow them to take from us without raising a single voice.

Had an good and interesting few weeks. Good places to go (Matopos), good meetings (different people), good meals (chocolate pudding), good conversations (some senior people), good listening (very outspoken, very un-Zimbabwean), and good information (some people just ‘know’ things), and some very trustworthy (old acquaintances).

So some of the things said, and realised, bear repeating.

“Why did you leave the MDC?” “Because it used to be a movement.” And it is claimed,by the questioner, that it still is. But I really do not think so anymore. So many contrary indications.

I remember as the Caucus assistant secretary for the MDC City Councillors, when Mudzuri was Mayor (exectuive, not ceremonial). That is, I was allowed to do all the work. I took the minutes of the MDC councillors meetings (i.e not the City of Harare meetings, but the meetings of the political party at that level meetings). I realised, and we all said, “Makwavarara, she is a problem”. So I wrote letters to the party. All the levels, all the bosses. Femai, the Province Secretary. Chaibva, the shadow Local Government minister.

And I was told, “Ah Laban, you are fighting the wrong enemy”.

Then, Muduzuri was fired (as we all were in the end), and Makavarara took over as Mayor. Murambatsvina followed, and the official MDC response, “Ah, we did not know!”

So, they are a bunch of liars. That is to say, politicians (since all politicians are liars). Moreover, the aim is, as any political partie’s should be, to gain power. The enemy is not ‘corruption’, the enemy is Zanu PF (the other big political party). I was fighting the wrong enemy. But then, I thought the MDC was a movement. They will tell us, in their round about political way, Once we are in power, we can then stop corruption”. This may be true, but one must not forget, they are politicians (and therefore liars).

And then out comes the Mail and Guardian with the front page headline, “Tsvangirai At TheTrough”. So it seems I am not the only one who believes they have left their movement roots, and become a political party. Seeking power, not change. Perhaps a change in who benefits from power, but not a change in the benefits.

So, how is it a movement anymore? They are just a bunch of chefs. New chefs. The Ceremonial Mayor of Harare earns a big salary every month, someone said. Ministers all have new cars. And deputy ministers. And permanent secretaries. And nice cars at that (but even then, they cannot make them last more than a couple of years without major pay offs for repairs). So it would certainly seem the new chefs are not part of a movement for a change of the system. Just a change of the beneficiaries. And Budiriro remans with unhealthy water.

So, while the time has come to criticise them as one would any lying political party, (the joke about nappies and political parties in not a joke) I will still support them as making a change – any change, will lead to less concentration of power. And I will continue to predict, “two years”. Two years and Zanu PF (the losing party, the former ruling party) will be ‘the other’ big political party. This will be good. But certainly not the answer. Two political parties is a step towards the answer. But the answer is DEMOCRACY, not the MDC. So I will continue to work for popular involvement at the local government level. Perhaps not so far as Obote, who banned political parties, but I like his thinking. Along the right lines.

I see there is a lot of heat concerning the questionable “spending habits” of the Prime Minister, Finance Minister and other senior MDC officials in government and how they are abusing public funds. And heck, they are being investigated by “the law,” and they well could find themselves behind bars where they previously have been guests and would no doubt not relish a night at Matapi!

While of course one cannot afford the luxury of ignoring politicians bloating their faces with money meant for the poor, building humongous manors when across the road are hovels housing dirt poor families, or travelling by air first class when the ordinary Jack has to travel in those ramshackle death-traps called long distance buses they already know will falter, veer off the road and plunge into a ditch, one still has to question this rather apocryphal due diligence of the public defenders who have taken these coalition partners to task about how they are spending public funds. And this is in a country where we have folks who have been in government for barely three years being investigated for alleged fiscal malfeasance when we have men and women who have been at it for three decades exhibiting an indefatigable streak of kleptocracy still holding their heads high and with no lawman daring to throw the book at them.

That is why it has been fairly easy for MDC officials and supporters to dismiss the investigations on the USD1,5 million for the PM’s house and the foreign trips of the FM’s staffers as part of a grand plot that no doubt will unravel as we head for the next polls. We are obviously watching closely how this will pan out, yet I can see a flood of “sympathy votes” in the offing! But it is something to imagine how resources to investigate the abuse of government resources have never been diligently spread to challenge over the decades on anything from the 85 percent disability gratuity claims by men and women who “died for the country” but still walk the earth, housing funds meant for poor civil servants looted without batting an eyelid, tender scams from as far back as the 1980s that remain unpunished, the bankrupting of Roger Boka – we could go on and on and on, but then the hypocrisy of the founding fathers has become legendary. Remember the old man frothing about corrupt colleagues and threatening the wrath of the gods on offenders long before anyone imagined he rule “his Zimbabwe” with anyone? We are not asking that these people not be investigated, we are asking that there be consistency.

Great ain’t it?

Had a few good laughs watching ZBC news last night when a senior education official in one of the Mashonaland provinces said President Mugabe had donated computers in schools where there is no electricity. Nothing new really. Sydney Sekeramayi was officially opening a computer lab at some rural school, and the education official’s comments were indeed telling and I wondered why the reporter had allowed that comment to make it to the bulletin considering it was not very flattering if you think of it. The other week Sunday Mail [July 24-30] ran a story with the headline “REA please give us electricity.” REA of course being the Rural Electrification Agency, and it will be recalled that this was one of the vehicles used by the then ruling party to galvanise support in the rural areas, and in the Sunday Mail story it was the rural folks themselves who were making the appeal for magetsi kuvanhu. The Sunday Mail reported: “Many rural areas are still  “in the dark,” more than a decade after the launch of the programme.” You then have to wonder who advises the President when he makes these computer donations to schools in areas where that education official says there is no electricity. But then as we have seen it with local politicians for a long time: what they do or say does not have to make sense, just as long as they are seen to be doing something. So much for an informed electorate in an alleged democracy!

A photograph from a street in America. Similar graffiti in Zimbabwe please, to remind us that those in power are taking us for a ride.
From: Dangerous Minds

Here’s a radical idea: what if Mugabe stays home for a few months and his travel allowance, generous as it is, goes towards helping ZESA, our national power company, get back on its feet? Apparently ZESA has been running adverts on state controlled TV asking people to switch off their switches and geysers. Hmmm. The average citizen is yet again asked to moderate their behaviour but all the while the chefs in suits Just Don’t Give a Damn.