$300m and no results – the futility of the Zanu summit

I gasp at the hard fact that Zanu (PF) has invested so much time and effort in raising this kind of money, considering that the event that it’s treating like Christmas is full of sound and fury, with no tangible results, year in and year out.

I wonder if the party ever audits its resolutions at the conferences and congresses it has held over the decades. If it did, it would not continue huffing about ceremonies that start crumbling even before delegates leave the venue.

Take the 2012 Gweru conference, for instance. A myriad of resolutions made, but hardly any recommendation has been actioned.

For the record, this is the basic wishlist that the party made one year ago: Fighting corruption in the police force; 50-50 gender representation in all decision-making institutions; empowerment projects for women and youths; allocating illegal miners claims and capitalising their projects; rebuilding the national cattle herd; encouraging greater foreign direct investment; spearheading power generation; restoring full service delivery after the 2013 elections (that it had wanted to be held in January, by the way); massive road construction; boosting community share ownership trust; boosting the economy, and empowering rural women.

If there is anyone out there who can tell me that the party has scored in any of the areas above, may that person come forward, but I know it would be difficult even for the most thick-skinned spin doctor in the party to put his or head on the block regarding this.

For instance, Zanu (PF) hardly had a third of female candidates in the last elections, yet it had resolved to strike a 50-50 balance in national institutions.

Instead of settling on effective ways to boost FDI, the party’s new government is always harping about the Chinese and the Indians, and is busy shooing away serious suitors by waving the indigenisation card.

Darkness is increasing in our homes, so talk about increased power generation is vacuous. Again, the Zimbabwe Republic Police is still to be sanitised, judging by the level of corruption that still bedevils the organisation. So, why seek to blow a ripe $300m on another empty ritual, especially when history demonstrates amply that nothing tangible comes out of it?

Frankly, even if Zanu (PF) planned to use only $100,000, I was going to get worried, but the ceremony does not justify it.

As we are speaking, Patrick Chinamasa is running around like a clueless turkey and cannot say anything sensible about the budget, yet his party is busy mobilising a fortune for an empty event.

Imagine what $300m would do for ordinary Zimbabweans who are struggling to raise capital for modest livelihood projects. A screaming lot!

Let’s say Zanu (PF) had seen sense in fundraising to empower the people with that money, and had divided it among the thousands of hungry rural

Zimbabweans to start collective income-generating projects. That surely was going to change many lives.

This $300m would be blown over one or two days, with a substantial amount, as we have seen in the past, finding its way into thieving individuals’ pockets. Five or so beasts bought with the money would go to someone’s butchery and a good number of hapless delegates would still go hungry. So much ado about nothing, wouldn’t you say? All that creativity that the party has displayed as it advertised to raise funds should surely be used to find ways of fixing the economy. Things are at a standstill in Zimbabwe, and there is no clue where we are headed. – If you’d like to comment on this, please contact majonitt@gmail.com