Even as logistics for the Zanu PF congress were in progress, there was evidence galore that bread and butter issues were destined to be a perennial social challenge that would transcend the congress.
Guest Column with Cyprian Ndawana
With the congress held on the backdrop of an intense interparty apple of discord, both discussions and decisions were inevitably bound from the very onset to be of no placebo effect on the livelihood of the long suffering citizenry.
Despite its culmination in the appointment of Vice-Presidents Emerson Mnangagwa and Phelekezela Mphoko, the non-cliffhanger congress bore no propitious omens, not even pep pills.
Instead, it ushered in a jaded Presidium, average aged 76 years old which to all intents and purposes renders the supposedly august thinktank institution an old people’s home — a reclining geriatrics ward.
It is a national disgrace that Mnangagwa and Mphoko are joining the Presidium very late in their lives, at ages they, in fact, could be eyeing retiring to social endeavours that do not demand much of their dwindling mental and physical strength.
Given the energy-sapping rigours of politics, detention, exile life and liberation struggle they went through, it goes without mention that they are now on the wane, in dire need of a respite from hectic schedules.
With all due respect, their contribution will basically be token than effectial.
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With President Robert Mugabe still clinging to the baton even as he counts down to his 91st birthday, the Presidium will inevitably be compelled to deliberate on the host of intricate social challenges from his jaundiced perspective, hence its low probabilities of getting the better of bread and butter issues.
There hardly can ever be forward thinking and reforms as long as the aged, accustomed to their traditional approach, preside.
Given that the country has long been slumped on the socio-economic political deathbed, it is disheartening that none within the Presidium still has the grit to grasp the hammer and sickel.
They are no longer equal to the task, not even to at least cover the cracks and whitewash patches of the ruined and dilapidated infrastructure.
Suffice for the fulfilment of constitutional obligations, the net effect of the appointments is that the country continues to be haplessly languishing on ground zero.
With the congress held as if by design for Mugabe to demonstrate to all and sundry his peremptory traits, delegates were virtually withdrawn into their shells save for when registering their loyalty to the dear leader.
Instead of exercising their minds, thinking through deliberations, they were cautious, swimming with the flow lest they be branded conspirators.
Mugabe’s constant reference and denigration of former Vice-President Joice Mujuru, whom he literally burnt in effigy, was tailored to convey the message that he brooks no descension, imagined or real. Yet, beneath the unsavoury manner in which some cadres were ejected from party positions and subsequently barred from attending the congress lies a familiar modus operandi.
There were stricking similarities with how white commercial farmers were ejected from farms.
Yet, although chiefly gratified by being the singular power point, Mugabe truly does not have a recovery roadmap for the country.
If all his millennium development goals which included health, education and housing for all came to naught, what else can citizenry expect from him given that he is now cruising almost remote controlled in the easing zone of his life.
There was a time when doctors were oblivious to the harm caused by bacteria by virtue of its being too minute to be seen by the naked eye.
However, a new era dawned on them with advances in technology. A likewise era ought to dawn on Mugabe. All the power he wields amounts to a pauper’s victory as long as his subjects suffer dire poverty.
It is about time he ceased to regard himself as the talisman with no equals.
Without reading much into his “down with Zanu PF” congress slip of the tongue, it is providential to mention that the former Vice-President Dr Joshua Nkomo was far from being 90 years old when dementia was said to be debilitating his faculties.
As humanity journeys through life, there comes a moment when one has to search themselves — not through the mirror nor opinions of others, but from the heart.
Unless one has a seared conscience, such a moment cannot be mistaken. It was at such a moment that Apostle Paul made his oftentimes quoted statement: “Time has come for my departure, I fought the good fight of faith; I finished the race.”
With the citizenry reduced to flotsam on scrounch for survival through vending, it is a fatal error for Mugabe to reckon that all his geese are swans.
He risks being a stumbling block than than a stepping stone if he does not emulate the propitious example set by Apostle Paul.
