(Last Updated on February 14, 2016 by Editor)
ZIMBABWE – While the media in Zimbabwe, in particular the private Press, has been accused of sensationalising the country’s problems in the process scaring away investors, events in Chiweshe yesterday are a very sombre moment for this country.
Early this week, Zanu PF leader President Robert Mugabe and his wife were talking peace and unity, but First Lady Grace disregarded all this in the process creating a sense of instability that Zimbabweans thought they had left behind.
After the expulsion of former Vice-President Joice Mujuru debacle our hope was that the governing party would find peace and begin to concentrate on rebuilding the image of the country and the economy. Alas, how wrong we were. The greatest mistake that this country’s leadership has done in the last two years has been to politicise every event in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabweans would agree that the country needs a bit of rest from the heckling that characterised the better part of 2014 and 2015. They deserve a government that is stable and focused on economic recovery. Now the much-vaunted economic blueprint dubbed ZimAsset has all but been forgotten. It’s back to the days of toxic political messages and hate language.
Is it not true that First Lady Grace has become the most divisive political element this country has ever seen? If anything, she can single-handedly scare away any investor and even those with a thick political skin as well as our all-weather friends from the East should be very worried.
Who would want to come to a country that is perpetually in turbulent waters? No sane investor wants to put even a cent in a country that does not have a clear political path from one leader to another.
Somebody at some point must indeed stop her. Mugabe needs to be reminded that Zimbabwe will and needs to exist beyond him. Mugabe needs to be reminded that this country is greater than individuals and as the current leader he has an obligation, a constitutional obligation, to set up structures that will ensure this continuity.
This knee-jerk approach of doing things or the mentality that seems to indicate that Zimbabwe will cease to exist the moment he “walks away” will not help our people or the next generation.
What legacy does he want to leave, if we may ask? Is it not ironic that in the eyes of the Mugabe household, no other Zimbabwean is fit to lead this country?
We can only appeal to Mugabe to sort things out now before something goes wrong. The citizens of this country have reason to be scared, reason to be very afraid if the goings-on of the last few days are anything to go by. Zimbabwe needs stability and upsetting the applecart just a year after setting up a clear structure that had given citizens and the international community reason to begin to believe in Zimbabwe again is nothing less than being selfish.
We have no doubt that Zimbabweans do not want chaos, war or anything that disturbs their peace, no wonder Mugabe has been able to govern for an uninterrupted period of almost 36 years.
The unpalatable unfolding events show that there is something wrong with the way Zimbabweans made, followed and elevated political leaders such that many have come to a time when they probably hate themselves. If anything, they eschew ever wanting to be such a thing.
Mugabe should understand that the people’s exhausted compliance may soon lead to his comeuppance.