They reflect neglect, expedient forgetfulness and utter hypocrisy of the party and its leader – who seem to have forgotten the plight of those who have sacrificed so much in the fight for a better Zimbabwe.
Out in Mashonaland West’s Banket town resides a boy aged six, whose parents are failing to raise money for school fees. Nigel has failed to register for the first grade, yet the school fees are relatively modest.
The failure by parents to send their children to school is a familiar story, because of widespread poverty owing mainly to years of mis-governance and neglect by previous governments superintended by President Robert Mugabe.
However, what makes Nigel’s situation peculiar is his history, young as he is. Readers will recall that, in 2008 when he was only two, Nigel was detained together with his parents who were being accused of terrorism.
By implication, he became a suspect. He came face-to-face with the harsh realities of prison conditions at a tender age and still suffers hallucinations. He has also become violent and seems obsessed with the gross and uncouth language he picked from prison. He has not been able to receive post-traumatic stress disorder attention. In short, he is a haunted young man whose future looks very, very bleak.
Scenario number two. Tsvangirai went to the UK recently on honeymoon with his new wife, Elizabeth Macheka. He took along with him a sizeable number of people and spent several days merrymaking. Even in the absence of actual figures on how much was spent on travel, accommodation, food and sundries, the honeymoon certainly gobbled thousands of dollars.
Contrast that with the humbling time I spent with a group of elderly Swedish nationals who for the past 15 years have been fundraising for community projects in Zimbabwe. All the volunteers, going by the name UN Association of Ornskoldsvik, are retirees aged over 70 and make it a point to visit regularly and travel throughout the country to assess their projects and donate more money.
I was touched by the fact that they travel using the cheapest plane from Sweden, sleep on the floor at a rented house in Cranborne and eat modest food. They do this in order to maximize the amount of money that can be used to run their projects. In the twilight of their lives, they are supposed to be resting in old people’s homes, but they have chosen the gruelling routines of humanitarian work to help improve the lot of those in need.
Nigel’s situation and UNA’s selfless work should surely shame and embarrass Tsvangirai. He has always told us how much he is dedicated to bettering the lives of Zimbabweans, and his party calls itself a party of excellence.
Honestly, how does he feel about spending thousands of dollars on a luxurious honeymoon when the likes of Nigel are struggling to raise a few dollars to stay in school? Tsvangirai seems to have lost sight of the plain fact that, for him to be able to gallivant as he is doing, it is because of the horrors vulnerable people like Nigel and his parents have gone through.
They are in a worse off situation than they were before they chose to make sacrifices for the betterment of Zimbabwe – yet Tsvangirai and the MDC seem not to care at all. How hard-hearted is it for the MDC to abandon its sheep even before they reach the Land of Canaan? Who then do they want to lead when they reach the Promised Land? Themselves?
What legacy are Tsvangirai and his party nurturing for innocent souls like Nigel who will grow up without an education, a job or a chance to live a decent life? What will they tell posterity? Are they, then, any different from Mugabe and Zanu (PF) who have been honeymooning from the moment of independence, forgetting the masses and sharing the cake among themselves?
There are thousands of people living in misery after being tortured, maimed and murdered because of their belief in the MDC and its erstwhile vision of bringing prosperity to Zimbabwe.
For instance, many MDC followers were arraigned before the courts and had their passports forfeited. A substantial number used to depend on cross-border trade to fend for their families. Now they cannot do that and the MDC is apparently comfortable, too cozy, with that. Is it not an irony that some of them are today selling sweets right in front of Harvest House, the party headquarters?
If a team of elderly foreign nationals can dedicate themselves to helping the poor and needy when they could in fact be swinging in hammocks back home, I don’t understand why MDC cannot do more.
True heroes in a revolution are measured by their commitment to their vision, and the sooner the MDC realises this, the better their chance of survival. For feedback, please write to majonitt@gmail.com
Post published in: Analysis