The land of milk and honey beckons and some comrades’ appetite for plunder is now greatly under attack from an increasingly discerning electorate who would want the elections in 2013 to be issues-based as opposed to personality-based. The time for sloganeering is most certainly over. The people have clearly refused to be fed on an incessant diet of hate, malice and propaganda. The game is on. We are absolutely alone; but we are together.
History has taught us the lesson of dialectical materialism; simply put it means that the old collapses into the new and that nothing lasts forever. Political parties that stubbornly refuse to mutate and move with the times will inevitably collapse into the dustbin of history. In similar measure, politicians who morbidly think that they are God’s gift to mankind will soon find out that no one is indispensable. Change is inevitable and change is coming.
At the elections to be held in June , 2013, the people of Zimbabwe will refuse to be locked up in history. They will totally reject the politics of thievery, kleptocracy, retribution and obscurantism. The people will bid farewell to a system that has brought untold suffering into their lives. A system that has perfected the art of patronage and consistently rewarded mediocrity, insolence and downright incompetence.
In the corridors of power, alarm bells are ringing. They are ringing so loudly they have become a constant irritant. Thirty two years of unbridled political power and control has, unfortunately, made some of these comrades impervious to the winds of change. While dynamic revolutionary parties such as Chama Chama Pinduzi ( CCP) in Tanzania and the South West Africa People’s Organisation ( SWAPO) in Namibia have constantly appreciated the need to periodically renew and re-invigorate their leadership, a certain political party in Zimbabwe, which party is as old as the writer, has not seen it fit to bring in new and fresh blood to jump start and crank its fading engine.
Like an ostrich, this political party continues to bury its head in the sand in the vain hope that the hand of time will come to a standstill and that miraculously, the wheel can be re-invented. We all know this party. Its top four leaders have a combined age of around 300 years! With due respect, this is an old and extremely tired leadership. This is a retirement-bound leadership which has, of course, seen better days. To expect them to be able to take Zimbabwe to the next level will be as futile as expecting heavy snowfall in the Sahara desert. It simply won’t happen. Finish and klaar.
The voters are discerning. You can no longer sell them a dummy. You can beat the hell out of them, rape their wives, sisters and daughters, loot their meagre possessions and even kill them but then one thing is certain. You cannot take away their humanity. You cannot and will not strip them of their convictions. On polling day, they will hit you back in a very harsh way. You may bribe the traditional l leaders and buy them beer so that they are always sloshed but the truth is you can never stop an idea whose time has come.
You may actually think that the people are alone but what you certainly do not know is that the very same people are, in fact, together. They know what they want. They know you for what you really are ; a sly, thuggish and intolerant political class who are corrupt to the bare bones. They will not be seduced by your smash and grab policy disguised as empowerment and indigenisation. The people are not impressed when you routinely rob Peter in order to pay Paul. You will not touch the people’s hearts by creating thoroughly discredited and corrupt, so-called community share ownership trusts whose directorship and shareholding is opaque and shadowy.
The people may be desperately poor but they are not stupid. They know what they want. They know that thirty years of looting has brought extreme poverty into their lives. One day, very soon, they will punish you heavily. Zimbabwe is more than ripe for change. This is the time for women and men of honour and integrity to rise up and save their nation from collapse. This is the time to renounce the notoriously discredited smash and grab policy and start to create wealth. You cannot continue to squabble over a small and dwindling cake.
In fact, you should actually create new wealth and the best way to do so is by giving the people JUICE. ( jobs, upliftment, investment, capital and environment) Yes, it is possible to create one million new jobs by 2018. It is also possible to bring macro-economic stability anchored by single digit inflation. Indeed, it is very possible to attract foreign direct investment ( FDI) that is at least 30% of the gross domestic product ( GDP). More importantly, it is feasible to establish a US$100 billion first world economy by 2040.
To take Zimbabwe to the next level, we need an invigorated team of dedicated and honest leaders who shun corruption and who are able to work their socks off. We need a new vision to enable JUICE to be enjoyed by the people. Gone should be the days when patronage rules the roost. If you are incompetent, lazy and/or corrupt, you should be promptly shown the exit door. There should be zero tolerance to corruption, across the political divide.
Let sloganeering become a lazy person’s past time. Zimbabwe is crying out for workaholics and not schemers, opportunists and political scavengers who see enemies where, in fact, there are no enemies. And we should never forget to recover looted public assets. All ill-gotten wealth should be accounted for in the new dispensation coming soon. Money that has been looted and externalised, should be repatriated to enable Zimbabwe to start running efficiently again. There should be no impunity for looting. Neither should there be immunity for the perpetrators of gross human rights violations. Lest I be misconstrued for advocating for an eye for eye approach; I am not by any stretch of the imagination clamouring for retribution.
My argument is that no one should be seen to have benefited from their deliberate and criminal acts of thievery. In similar vein, perpetrators of heinous human rights offences should be dealt with in accordance with the tenets of the law in order to bring closure to both the victims and the perpetrators. Without bringing closure, there will be no lasting and sustainable peace in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe has to literally start from scratch. A battered economy such as ours cannot be resuscitated by cowboy and thuggish economic policies as exemplified by the doomed to fail so-called empowerment program. We have to adopt a rational and pragmatic economic blueprint. Populist economic blueprints that feed on lies, thievery, opaqueness and patronage should be totally rejected.
Indeed, we should not smash and grab and call it indigenisation and empowerment. Instead, we should give the people plenty of JUICE.
Obert Gutu is the Senator for Chisipite in Harare. He is also the MDC Harare provincial spokesperson & Deputy Minister of Justice & Legal Affairs. He is the Africa Heritage Society Goodwill Ambassador for Justice & Messenger of Peace.
Post published in: Opinions & Analysis