Zimbabweans will not buy cheap politics anymore

The first and most important resource in any nation are its people. Unfortunately our politicians dont realize this. They act as if they want to rule a nation of skeletons. Zimbabweans all over the world are closely monitoring the situation back home. There is no point trying to lure people to go home. Once they see the situation is stable they will flock home on their own.

Some people went to UK and left their husbands, wives or even entire families back home. Who wants to stay away from his or her family for many years? In 2008 there were xenophobic attacks in South Africa. South Africans chased all foreigners with big pangas. Among the foreigners were more than two million Zimbabweans. How many of them went back to Zimbabwe?

(Pictured: Zimbabweans working the vineyards at De Doorns in the Cape have been the centre of attention in the SA media for the past few weeks, as locals try to get rid of them. But the farmers say they need them.)

Recently Zimbabweans living in farms in Cape Town were chased away, their shacks were destroyed but still they did not go back to Zimbabwe. They were taken to camps and still they will go back to same places. In Botswana Zimbabweans are harassed by the police everyday. But do they stop going there? Are these hardships not enough to force people to go back home? Why are they not going back? They will not buy cheap politics anymore, simple. And yet the two ministers travel all the way to South Africa to say, The Zimbabwe government is ready to drop all charges against political activists and specific business people who are currently living outside the country. This is a new chapter and your country is beckoning you. So said Mohadi.

Among those present were Meikles Group Chairman John Moxon, Trust Bank head William Nyemba, and businessmen James Makamba and Mutumwa Maware. How can they say they are opening a new chapter when they are recalling people like Jonathan Moyo? This is the man who revived all the draconian laws of the Smith regime. The same business people watch Roy Bennett going up and down to court. Is this how you open a new chapter? There is simply no rule of law. They continue to chase farmers from farms and give them to their cousins. We are facing another drought but there are no grain reserves at all. The government is failing to draft a new constitution that will guarantee the rights of all the people. All they want is a constitution that gives them allowances and privileges.

The government calls for people to come home and rebuild the country, but they are busy sending their children and cousins to study abroad. They know our education standards have decreased greatly. If it is not good enough for their children, how can it be good enough for our children? Many Zimbabweans perished of cholera because the government could not afford to buy chemicals and fix the sanitation system. However the same government could afford to buy a full ship of ammunition from China.

(Pictured: UNICEF has been reluctant to get involved, but did set up some tents in the area when the xenophobia erupted last month)

It seems the two ministers are lying to the people. The same business people being lured back were chased away by the same people like snakes. There is no new chapter in Zimbabwe. There is no new beginning. There is just new wine in old wine skins, and its just a matter before these wine skins bursts. Zimbabweans are ready to go back home but first Tobaiwa Mudede, Gideon Gono, Robert Mugabe and many others must go. – mkanemanyanga@yahoo.com