Transformation from poverty to prosperity a pipe dream

By Cyprian M Ndawana | Dec. 20, 2023

Your Excellency, it is my fundamental conviction that democracy is too precious to be dispensed with in preference for partisanship.

GOOD day, President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Your Excellency, the transformation from poverty to prosperity for many you recently alluded to is a pipe dream. It was wishful thinking, easier said than done to ignite false expectations and pacify the gullible.

As I see it, your closing remarks at the 20th Zanu PF national people's conference held in Gweru in October were a figment of your imagination.

Given the culture of corruption which has not spared the Judiciary and Deeds Office, devolution, which you said to be transformative, is destined to die a crib death.

Methinks your rallying of the Zanu PF membership to provide guidance for speedy implementation of programmes that improve the wellbeing of the people and communities was altogether an illusion with no prospects of seeing the light of the day.

Regrettably, your hate speech in which you described the opposition as “puppets of our detractors” is demeaning and hurtful to the dignity of freethinkers who subscribe to pluralism.

Duly, use of derogatory language foments animosity and hatred among citizenry. It is divisive. It is outside the bounds of dignity, mutual respect and tolerance to refer to those who subscribe to alternative views as opportunistic, heartless and politically-immature puppets.

There is no substance to your claim of being a friend to all and enemy to none. Given the apparent intense passion with which you describe the opposition as puppets and heartless, it is indicative that you are oblivious of the housekeeping adage, charity begins at home.

It was in bad taste that you charged, “These by-elections provide our people another opportunity to democratically kick out opportunistic, heartless and politically-immature puppets of our detractors who pretend to be opposition political parties.”

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Your Excellency, it is my fundamental conviction that democracy is too precious to be dispensed with in preference for partisanship. It cannot be extended to some and denied to others, neither can it be practised with the reckless abandon of the scriptural sower. It calls for equitability.

Granted, it has taken humanity a long and difficult road, characterised by the enduring saving grace of equitability, morality and probity to refine the tenets of civilisation and democracy. Its essence of accountability and transparency is immutable, like sacraments.

Yet, the December 9 by-elections low voter turnout was a national embarrassment. Coming as it did on the backdrop of the August sham harmonised elections, methinks there is more to the paltry participation than meets the eye.

As I see it, it was an eloquent show of mistrust and frustration with the country’s leadership in particular and the electoral processes in general.

It has reached the point whereby citizenry are agitated and scornful towards a leadership that is not ashamed of claiming victory from an election that failed to comply with the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the Electoral Act and the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections (2021).

Your Excellency, from where I stand, the recalls that necessitated the by-elections should not have been effected. They deserved to be disregarded with likewise definitive sternness with which the Zanu PF ones were thrown out.

It was inconceivable that government heeded instructions from a misguided lone ranger to upset the opposition electoral apple cart.

Ordinarily, he ought to have been placed on the due processes of validation of his credibility and authority to act as he did. It makes a mockery of the law that any deranged mortal can usurp the wishes of citizenry just like that.

A well-meaning reasonable man would have paused for verification. Essentially, a bona fide opposition official would not single-handedly caused the parliamentarians of his party to be expunged from their duly elected seats. There ought to have been minutes to that resolution

Yet, government stooped to the lowest common denominator to effect the recalls initiated by a malicious turncoat. It stinks of malice and aforethought that government hit the ground running to heed the recalls.

Your Excellency, amid the ongoing political circus of recalls of elected opposition legislative representatives, Zimbabwe has been reduced to a classical case of pitiable failed democracy. With some of the constituencies recording a single digit voter turnout percentage, what legitimacy can ever accrue from such a charade?

Zimbabwe is endowed with bountiful resources. She has the requisite fundamentals of being a prosperous nation. She is a heaven on earth, indeed. Yet, she lacks leadership probity, one that does not act without conscience.

Your Excellency, it must have been such low calibre leadership that Seneca had in mind when he proffered a transcendent verity, “Choose as a guide, one whom you will admire more when you see her/him act than when you her/him speak.”

Apparently, the formation of umpteen 4ED groups, does not posit you as a leader worthy of belief and attention.

Contrarily, your desire to be surrounded by surrogates who clap hands at your every whim instead of deliberating on the challenges confronting the country with those who hold alternative perspectives is as nauseating as it is retrogressive.

It is shuddering to imagine the development foregone had all the resources that are being channelled towards the wanton destabilisation of the opposition and lavish donations been harnessed towards the socioeconomic upliftment of the citizenry.

As I see it, Zimbabwe still has a long way to go before she earns a place of pride to stand on, shoulder to shoulder among the league of progressive nations. She is handicapped by a dearth of leadership probity.

Your Excellency, Bob Marley must have had in mind pseudo philanthropists who owe their positions of power and influence to indiscriminately dishing out money when he remarked, “Some people are so poor that the only thing they have is money.”