Tendai Ruben Mbofana
In fact, it is common practice in our culture to make the home as comfortable and welcoming as possible for guests.
As such, it makes perfect sense for the family to put its best foot forward even if this means placing any differences and disagreements on hold and acting all ‘jolly-jolly’ for the sake of creating a welcoming atmosphere.
However, this only works when these ‘differences and disagreements’ are what anyone would expect from any family and are not too serious.
For instance, let us say a husband and wife were arguing over the latter’s recent shopping spree – whereby she overspent above the agreed budget.
This can easily be placed on the back burner during the presence of visitors.
As a matter of fact, when handled wisely, this period of unity and harmony may actually automatically fix the disagreement, such that by the time the guests leave, the husband and wife would have totally forgotten about their little disagreement.
Nonetheless, what happens when the ‘differences and disagreements’ are so severe that they can not simply be swiped under the carpet for the mere sake of making the guests feel at home?
What if keeping quiet may actually be literally a matter of life and death?
Let us say that the husband had been ruthlessly abusing his wife whilst at the same time not adequately fending for his children due to his irresponsible, reckless, and heartless behavior?
As it turns out, only a few days before the visit, the wife nearly lose her life at the hands of her brutal husband, who now gives his undivided attention and affections towards his ‘side chick’!
In so doing, all the family finances are going towards his own pleasures and philandering such that his children are now out of school due to unpaid fees.
Each night, the family goes to bed hungry since he no longer buys sufficient food.
If any of his family dare complain of this unbearable hunger and suffering, they are met with brute savagery at the hands of their father.
When the wife and children try to report the matter to the authorities or even seek medical attention, the father locks them up in the home – accusing them of disloyalty and disrespect.
How is that scenario to be handled in the presence of visitors – more so, when these guests are actually close relatives?
Should the family religiously and faithfully follow our cultural principles of pretending that all was well in the home?
Would it be advisable for them to put up the façade of a happy family, living in unity and harmony, merely to keep their father’s image and reputation in the eyes of the relatives intact?
Or, should they take this opportunity of the presence of the relatives to finally tell their horrific experiences at the hands of their cold-hearted father and husband?
Should they not use this as the chance to be heard and hopefully get some help?
Would be doing so truly be regarded as an act of ‘disloyalty or disrespect’ to their father and husband?
If there is anyone who answered ‘yes’ to this last question, then that person is a potential or current abuser.
In most circumstances, those who fiercely adhere to the ‘usafukure hapwa’ adage – meaning that one should not expose to ‘outsiders’ what is happening within the home – are abusers.
In these modern times, those who are facing abuse of any type – whether at home, workplace, community, or even the country – are encouraged to speak out.
No one should suffer or even die in silence.
With this logic in mind, this then brings us to the upcoming 44th SADC Heads of State and Government Summit to be hosted by Zimbabwe on 17th August 2024.
The country will be receiving very important visitors from the southern African region.
Ordinarily, as according to our African culture, all of us in Zimbabwe should present a united front of a people living in peace and harmony.
We should make our visitors feel immensely welcome and at home.
This means putting all our differences and disagreements on pause while our guests are in the country.
Under normal circumstances, we should actually be celebrating with our ‘father’, President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, as Zimbabwe takes over the SADC chair.
Please note that it is Zimbabwe, and not Mnangagwa, assuming this largely ceremonial role – which is determined on a rotational basis (going to every SADC member states), and not ‘won’ through elections.
Nevertheless, our dilemma as Zimbabweans is not at all ordinary.
Just as the abused and brutalized family mentioned earlier, we can not simply pretend that all is well in the country whilst acting all ‘jolly-jolly’.
We are suffering in the most harrowing ways at the repressive, barbaric, and kleptomaniac hands of the Mnangagwa regime.
This is a government that had cast the vast majority of the people of Zimbabwe into untold poverty – with millions unable to afford a decent meal.
Besides, 49 percent of the population living in extreme poverty, 7 million Zimbabweans are facing starvation.
Already, based on statistics from UNICEF, an estimated 1.7 million children in Zimbabwe will need urgent humanitarian assistance this year.
Zimbabwean children – 23.5 percent or over half a million – are stunted (chronically malnourished) and do not grow and develop to their full potential.
Last year alone, 4,300 children were admitted in hospital for wasting, which the WHO describes as acute malnutrition and a sign that a child has experienced short periods of undernutrition.
Our hospitals are without the most basic medications – with over 2,500 people dying of cancer each year due to the unavailability of cancer machines.
Yet, this is a country endowed with 60 precious minerals that are in demand worldwide and which we are freely trading.
We have enough wealth in Zimbabwe to give everyone a relatively decent livelihood.
The only problem is that this wealth is not being shared equally among all citizens but is only enjoyed by a few.
Otherwise, where would the ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) find US$1.2 million to pay for a server valued at US$4,000?
In fact, if there was no wealth in Zimbabwe, where would ZEC have found the US$100 million for a dubious deal with close Mnangagwa ally Wicknell Chivayo and his partners for electoral material whose cost was inflated by more than 235 percent?
If Zimbabwe had no money, could ZEC even pay $7.6 million for flushless toilets – the cost of which was inflated to $3,800 per unit instead of the proper $300 – that were only delivered months after the August 2023 elections?
Where did the government find the $7 million distributed to Mike Chimombe and Moses Mpofu for goats that were never delivered?
According to Attorney General Loice Matanda-Moyo, Zimbabwe is losing more than US$1.8 billion a year due to corruption alone.
This is suspected to be a very conservative figure, as the amount is believed to exceed US$2 billion.
However, whatever the exact figure, Zimbabwe can not afford to lose so much money to selfish individuals whose greed has left millions of ordinary citizens in abject poverty.
Is it any wonder that Zimbabwe is ranked 149 out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index for 2023, making it classified as “highly corrupt”?
Imagine what US$1.8 billion a year can do for the livelihoods and well-being of ordinary Zimbabweans.
A cancer radiotherapy machine costs only US$1.5 million.
How many of these life-saving machines could we have bought with the US$7.6 million used by ZEC for flushless toilets, in a country where 2,500 people die from cancer every year?
As the nation faces an El Niño-induced drought, and an estimated 7 million Zimbabweans are in urgent need of food aid, the government is pleading with the international community for US$2 billion.
Isn’t this the same amount the country is losing to corruption in a single year?
If the Mnangagwa administration had truly cracked down on corruption, particularly at the highest levels of power, no one in Zimbabwe would go hungry.
In fact, with 60 minerals sought-after worldwide, the country should be more economically advanced than the United Arab Emirates (United Arab Emirates), which only has oil and gas as natural resources.
Yet, we have some of the poorest people on the planet!
In fact, according to statistics by Farai Maguwu of the CNRG (Centre for National Resource Governance), Zimbabwe has the potential to earn more than US$15 billion a year from our resources.
The main reason this is not being achieved is corruption through the smuggling of our minerals and other illicit financial transactions involving high-ranking officials.
Who can forget Al Jazeera’s investigative documentary ‘Gold Mafia’?
We are living in unbearable poverty as a direct result of the looting of our national resources by those in power – who are living in obscene opulence.
And, just as the family I highlighted, when we try to speak out and stand up against this grave injustice, we are treated as ‘detractors’ and enemies of the state, who deserve to be jailed.
Therefore, as the country hosts visitors, how are we supposed to behave?
Are we seriously expected to keep quiet?
Is that the wise or even African thing to do?
Should we not use this opportunity – of the presence of our ‘relatives’ from southern Africa – to let our grievances heard?
However, this has to be done in a most peaceful and dignified way so that our guests take us seriously as respectful people who are merely crying out for help.
If we fail to speak out, we have no one to blame but ourselves when our suffering is never taken seriously and with the gravity it deserves by the international community.
This is literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the suffering, impoverished, and oppressed people of Zimbabwe to be heard by the world.
We can not afford to suffer in silence just so that Mnangagwa can look good in the eyes of his fellow SADC counterparts.
- Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to WhatsApp or Call: +263715667700 | +263782283975, or email: mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com, or visit website: https://mbofanatendairuben.news.blog/