The implications of introducing that poisonous chemical into the water that millions of people would have consumed—on those occasions when our taps gurgle, of course—are just ghastly. Take this hypothetical scenario. It is evening, after a modest meal, when a family of six washes down whatever it has eaten for supper with water from the tap, boiled or not boiled.
They are immediately taken ill and a neighbor, who has just returned from work and whose family is still using hoarded borehole water, offers his car to ferry them to hospital.
When they get there, moaning and groaning, the nurses, already reeling because of understaffing, have also fallen ill after drinking the water. So, there is no one to help the patients, and there is no doctor in sight because he has also drunk the water.
The nurses and the patients die and visitors to the hospital help take the deceased to the mortuary, but the mortician has already collapsed against a body shelf. This may be a linear projection, for I am not a community health expert, but the possibility of a catastrophe posed by Cyanidegate cannot be dismissed. While the mix-up scares the imagination, what is particularly peeving to me is the manner in which some players swiftly moved in to try and mine political and business capital out of this possible humanitarian disaster.
I was immediately struck by the simulated philanthropy displayed by Local Government Minister, Ignatius Chombo. Immediately after hearing about Cyanidegate, he ran so fast to the police to make a report his face turned as ashen as his trademark hair.
A police report would not be enough, so he also burnt the midnight candle to institute a parallel internal investigation. Make no mistake about it. The cyanide boob deserved a speedy response, but the manner in which Chombo conducted himself begs the question. A whole cabinet minister rushing to the police to make a report! Talk about self-anointed whistleblowers.
He forgot the courtesy of engaging council, starting with Muchadeyi Masunda, the Mayor.
A bit of background will help the reader understand why Chombo would behave in such a manner. The minister has been on the warpath with the MDC-dominated council for a long time. He is Zanu (PF) and his party wants Town House back. Every scandalous bit against the council will help his beloved party, especially as we gun for general elections. You see?
The poison saga, in the minds of people like Chombo, must open a Pandora’s box, so the attention shifts to tendering for water chemicals. Council has to be blamed for the manner in which it awarded the tender, forgetting, conveniently of course, that the State Procurement Board invariably gets involved in the process.
This is where Joseph Kanyekanye, a ‘‘newly appointed Harare Special Interest Councilor’’ according to the Sunday Mail, gets involved. As a special interest councilor, Kanyekanye is appointed by Chombo, directly or indirectly.
When the scandal broke, this councilor waxed lyrical about how it was wrong to award a tender to a foreign supplier instead of a local one. He even claimed that he had done research (one wonders when) which revealed that Zimphos, the erstwhile local supplier which was dumped for reportedly failing to meet demand, was the cheapest bidder out of the 37 companies that council had dealt with in the past.
Thanks to his mentioning of Zimphos, the narrative gets clearer. Was it by coincidence that Kanyekanye mentioned Zimphos in trying to rubbish the water chemicals tender that led to Cyanidegate?
I don’t think so. The following day or so, Chemplex Corporation Ltd, Zimphos’s parent company, flighted a full-page advert that lamely tried to demonstrate the advantages of indigenising chemical procurement and the cons of external orders.
‘‘It is unfortunate for the city and the country in general, when Harare City Council compromises water treatment by not exploiting readily available capacity at Zimphos…in preference to expensive imports,’’ says Chemplex in the advert.
I have decided to hear more than what the ad is saying. Chemplex is trying to take advantage of a crisis, real or imagined, to reposition itself for a new tender. Its concerns are absolutely not tied to the near-disaster. What I don’t understand up to now is whether or not there is a link between Chombo, Kanyekanye and the Chemplex/Zimphos management.
However, I am firmly persuaded that Chombo and Chemplex tried to scandalize Cyanidegate further for their own gain, not out of genuine humanitarian concern.
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Post published in: Analysis