It was never my intention to add my 600 words to the cacophony of voices surrounding Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s love life. But the more I read, the less I was able to resist asking: “But why are we fiddling with this while Rome is burning?”
Report by Thembe Sachikonye Zimbabwe has very serious issues to discuss. Some of them are so serious and have gone on for so long that, instead of our cries coming to a crescendo that finally results in action, they have simply petered out. We have come to accept the status quo while amusing ourselves with seriously unamusing details of an unamusing spectacle.
I don’t really have a position on the PM and his exploits. I reckon it could have happened to anybody, and I am pretty sure that if you opened St Peter’s secret file on the guy sitting next to you, you might very well start to think the PM is a saint.
I hear all those saying he is immoral, has poor judgment and has no self control. But hey, haven’t you ever made a bad judgment call, haven’t you ever, just once (or maybe twice or thrice in this case) been on the sloppy side of morality? Didn’t you ever do something you seriously regretted? Yes? Well then, you have the makings of a national leader! I hear too the voices of the sanctimonious segment that say he is a leader and a role model and should be above some things.
I hear the baying for his blood by those who say he is undeserving of national office and is an abuser of women’s rights. I even hear the ones who clearly haven’t hung out in this part of the world for a long time and are genuinely expecting the PM to resign.
Dream on darlings. Resign? What’s that? We don’t do that in Africa — it’s a bizzaire Western concept that is simply not part of our reality.
Mind you, I haven’t heard these same voices calling for anyone else’s resignation. They clearly don’t think the state of our water, ZESA, service delivery, healthcare, etc, is enough of a crisis for anyone to resign. Pity that! This might well be a good time for the PM to rummage around and see if he can still find the phone number of his former colleague Welshman Ncube. An invitation to tea with our new makoti, some gentle conversation around the subject or reconciliation, a little humble pie served to all parties along with the tea and who knows, they may actually start to look like they have a chance at the next election.
And what a coup that would be for the dear muroora! We all want a new wife to be a unifier in the family, don’t we?
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And perhaps to go a step further, she could then lead the discussion about the fire raging over Rome.
The expression “to fiddle while Rome is burning” is taken from the story of Nero (Claudius Augustus), a Roman emperor (from AD 54 to 68) who is said to have played on his musical instrument while a large fire ravaged large chunks of the city. Debate over whether his instrument was actually a fiddle or a lyre illustrates the point beautifully.
Nowadays the expression is used to describe a situation where someone engages in heedless and irresponsible behaviour while in the middle of a crisis. One might say our preoccupation with the marriage(s) of the PM and the divorces of prominent Zanu PF politicians has some connection with this saying.
To begin with, we are in the middle of a constitutional conundrum. The seriousness of this cannot be emphasised because it will determine our laws for many years to come. But what impression do you get from the reports you are reading?
Added to this, we still have one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world. Yes, HIV; remember that? It hasn’t actually gone away!
NewsDay this week presented a report on Harare citizens drinking water from the Mukuvisi River. What are you planning to do with that information? Let me guess — turn the page and look for the latest of some politician’s marriage/divorce. And then there is electricity. It seems we have become so accustomed to this crisis that we no longer see it as a crisis any more.
When the lights go off we just think; “Oh another power cut.” And if we can supplement light, heat, fuel, then we think it’s OK. Well it’s not OK.
After you turn this page, Rome will still be burning . . .
