THE disclosures by First Lady Grace Mugabe that all confiscated vendors’ goods are handed over to her as the mother of the nation should be a wake-up call to the electorate.
During a rally at Murombedzi growth point in Zvimba on Thursday, Grace dished out 150 bales of the second-hand clothes and other goods that were confiscated from vendors mainly in Harare, other major cities and at Zimbabwe’s border posts.
It is these vendors who, in previous elections, have been used as the Zanu PF support base and yet they are now being terrorised by the party they voted into power.
The ruling party left vendors to mushroom and spread roots in the country’s central business districts (CBDs) prior to the 2013 watershed elections only to discard them during their clean-up campaigns because in their thinking, the vendors have outlived their usefulness.
This shows insincerity on the part of the ruling party.
All this long, they have been preaching the gospel that that the informal sector had become the backbone of this nation. So why are the top-heavies decimating that same backbone?
With the unemployment rate hovering above 80% and more than 25 000 workers having lost their jobs following the July 17 Supreme Court ruling that allows employers to terminate workers’ contracts on three months’ notice, Zimbabweans are turning to the informal sector to eke out a living, and vendors make up the biggest chunk.
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It is these vendors who pay protection fees to Zanu PF godfathers — after all protection from what in this democracy as the ruling elite always prefer to describe Zimbabwe — yet they go on to lose their wares to Grace.
Some of these vendors had their homes demolished by the Harare City Council in the previous weeks where in Budiriro and Warren Park, houses were pulled down.
Other vendors are failing to pay bills and are about to have their water and electricity supplies cut by the Zimbabwe National Water Authority and Zesa respectively.
It is these same vendors, whose goods were confiscated and dished out to Zanu PF supporters in rural Zvimba. But the same vendors have families in drought-stricken rural Chivi and elsewhere in the country looking up to for sustenance.
Yet Grace, who prefers the moniker “Mother of the Nation”, is grabbing food from their mouths to parcel out for free to Zanu PF apparatchiks and runner boys.
She is treating the symptoms of the problems bedevilling the nation and not addressing the issues at hand.
Contraband confiscated from vendors is not the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic problems.
They sell smuggled goods because our leadership has put in place obnoxious policies that have ruined the nation.
Confiscation of vendors’ wares is only making lives worse for most Zimbabweans who currently live below the poverty datum line.
The citizens of this nation are worse off than they were 35 years ago. Our leadership has reduced most Zimbabweans to paupers.
Grace should know that donating a few confiscated goods is not going to improve the lives of the people of Zimbabwe.
The rural populace need reassurance that if they deliver their produce to the national granary, they will get paid.
Actually, the same rural populace even knows when they are being fooled and when they are not.
They need to be assured of better cotton prices at the end of the season and that there will be adequate supplies of seed and fertiliser before the onset of the next rainy season so that they do not starve. The decisions made by Cabinet are proof that Zimbabwe’s leaders are shielded from the vagaries of life.
We need down to earth leaders that mingle with the electorate and experience life as ordinary citizens do; leaders that empathise with the masses and serve the nation.
When political leaders own the means of production, their decisions in Parliament become skewed. A capitalist leader will never have the interests of the masses at heart. Policies are put in place to protect their investments. Who owns the clothing boutiques and businesses that Zanu PF is protecting? Definitely not ordinary citizens!
When Grace disclosed that not even her 91-year-old husband President Robert Mugabe could control her, it means that Zimbabweans are in trouble.
This goes to confirm that Zimbabwe is running on auto-pilot.
“When I went around country late last year denouncing the demon of factionalism, they thought I was joking and that the President (Mugabe) was going to stop me . . . but alas, he didn’t, he kept quiet . . . and as an independent mature woman, I spoke my mind because Zanu PF is my party and if I want to participate in its affairs, no one can stop me,” she boasted.
We have a leadership gap. We wouldn’t be wrong to think that the Mugabe has abdicated his duties by delegating them to his wife.
We should start to question the kind of leadership we have, when service chiefs with war credentials quake in their boots at the mention of Grace.
Indeed, if it is true that Vice-Presidents, Emmerson Mnangagwa and Phelekezela Mphoko, are consulting and taking notes from the First Lady then we have a big problem as a nation, then we are doomed.
What Grace said shows that there is no confluence of ideas or robust exchange on national issues in Cabinet! The student-teacher kind of relationship does not work when one is running a nation.
We need firm people at the helm of our country.
Zimbabwe requires leaders who will bring change and a turnaround of our economy.
Not cowards who are quick to sing praise and are only good at bootlicking so as to protect their ill-gotten wealth.
The nation is tired of the Mugabes’ hymn on corruption.
They are known for criticising corrupt politicians in public without addressing the situation.
What we need, as a nation, is to see Mugabe rooting out corruption from State institutions, instead of seemingly condoning and promoting it.
The decision to rid the nation of this rot now lies with the electorate. Zanu PF has failed Zimbabweans.
As voters, everyone should learn from past mistakes. Come 2018, the decision should be about ordinary citizens and not Zanu PF.
