SHOCK numbed me when I heard calls by some sycophantic ruling Zanu PF party zealots — namely, Radio Zimbabwe presenter Godfrey Gweje and former senior police officer Oliver Mandipaka — that journalist Hopewell Chin’ono must be arrested for ostensibly violating laws defining “patriotism” in Zimbabwe.
These most unfortunate statements made by the two betray a troubling ignorance of laws governing the country — since, the proposed Patriotic Bill has not yet been signed into law — and as such, cannot to be used against anyone.
Why on earth would anyone be arrested, prosecuted and convicted for committing “unpatriotic” deeds of merely exposing corruption?
Based on Gweje and Mandipaka’s wild declarations, Chin’ono’s “crime” is his supposed link to the much-anticipated documentary by news outlet Al Jazeera, which has promised us a jaw-dropping two-year undercover investigation exposing rampant high-level corruption and looting of national resources in Zimbabwe.
What I am failing to wrap my head around is: What is so unpatriotic about fighting corruption by not only investigating it, but also exposing the alleged culprits and their nefarious deeds?
Is this not the most patriotic thing any citizen — who genuinely loves his country and fellow compatriots – can and should do to ensure that any rot that destroys our beloved motherland, cripples the economy and forces the ordinary people into untold poverty is exposed?
Is this not the greatest form of devotion and dedication to one’s country and its population?
In fact, should there not be national awards to honour such people who go out of their way to protect Zimbabwe from the scourge of criminals who are destroying our economy through their self-enriching greed?
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I find it unbelievable that, in the wake of this promised exposé by Al Jazeera — which most of us, including the likes of Gweje and Mandipaka, have not yet seen — we already have some who are quick to be on the defensive and threatening individuals they do not even have proof were directly involved in the documentary’s production.
Should the normal response not have been to actually welcome this exposé, as a huge opportunity to finally boost the much touted “zero tolerance to corruption” — of which the President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa-led administration wants the entire world to believe they are committed to?
Is this not a grand (and once-in-a-lifetime) opportunity for the whole nation to embrace this exposé if we are sincere in our loathing of this tumour that has slowly eaten away at the fabric of our nation — considering how most citizens have been so disappointed with numerous incidents of the alleged “lack of evidence”, which has prevented successful prosecution of high-profile individuals fingered in the plundering of our national resources?
Surely, with the country being prejudiced over US$100 million each month through gold smuggling, with reportedly over US$25 billion of diamond revenue never accounted for over the past 15 years, and loads of raw lithium illegally crossing our borders — who, in their right mind, would not welcome such an exposé?
This exposé will lay bare the shenanigans by gold smugglers who walk our streets, some of whom were caught red-handed with the yellow metal in their hand luggage at the airport, but claimed they had picked up the wrong bag.
One does not need to be a rocket scientist to understand how such billions in stolen revenue could have benefited the country, and uplifted the ordinary citizenry’s livelihoods.
Our health care facilities would have been well-stocked with all the necessary medicines and treatments, with functional cancer radiotherapy machines.
Our learning institutions and marginalised rural areas would have sufficient educational material such as text and exercise books, modern information communications technologies (ICTs), and science laboratories.
We would have new 21st century roads — as opposed to continually repairing and rehabilitating Rhodesia era ones — that have long outlived their usefulness.
Goals for housing for all would have been long achieved — getting rid of the painful tendency of so-called “lodging” or renting —transforming our people from tenets to homeowners.
Both urban and rural areas would, by now, have daily access to potable water in their homes — through the construction of adequate dams and expansion of reticulation systems — doing away with boreholes, which are distances apart.
The country would have built by now new state-of-the-art power generation stations and we should not be experiencing these irritating and severely inconveniencing electricity outages.
So why are some people so angry over this documentary that they have gone to the extent of blaming certain persons without proffering a shred of evidence that they were involved in its production?
In fact, if it turns out that Chin’ono was part of this investigative team — then Mnangagwa should immediately honour him with the “Order of Great Zimbabwe Silver”, or something similar — for exhibiting such exceptional patriotism.
We actually need more of such revelations, not less, if this country hopes to get out of the economic mess that it finds itself in. If anything, these baseless threats can only be expected from those who have something to hide!
As mentioned before, most of us — save for only a handful of selected journalists — do not have the slightest clue of what exactly is contained in this Al Jazeera exposé.
So why the panic?
If there are suspicions that what is contained is a whole lot of hogwash and fabricated material, intended to tarnish the image of those in power — then, why not patiently wait to see the documentary first, in order to make an informed judgement?
I am quite sure that most Zimbabweans are very capable of identifying a work of fiction — and, will definitely call out Al Jazeera should they see that this production was fake and driven by sinister motives.
However, the panicky and feverish reaction by the ruling elite, and those aligned to them, is not helping their case because everyone is now eager to watch it, already believing that the regime has something to hide.
What is there to fear, except the truth?
The people of Zimbabwe have endured enough suffering, as a direct consequence of the disgusting and shameful plundering of our national resources by those in power — and, if Al Jazeera (and, even Chin’ono) turns out to be the “knight in shining armour” we have been waiting for — then, so be it.
There is absolutely nothing “unpatriotic” about that!
If the Patriotic Bill seeks to criminalise those fighting and exposing corruption, then all I can say is the government has to build more jails — because, we are all going to be imprisoned because we will not be ceasing the quest to stop the rot in Zimbabwe.
In a normal country — which is serious with fighting corruption, and all those working against national development — anyone fingered in the documentary should be the ones charged for being “unpatriotic”, and even treason.
But, then again, this is Zimbabwe!
And, in Zimbabwe, the corrupt are actually rewarded and protected — and, those who expose them, charged for being “unpatriotic”.
