THE anxiously awaited State of the Nation Address (Sona) by President Robert Mugabe and the 2017 National Budget presentation by Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa have come and gone, deflating the giant balloon of expectations held high by Zimbabweans vis-a-vis their leader’s vision for the beleaguered nation.
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With the year drawing to a close, there was all manner of expectation from the general populace.
Speculation was rife ahead of the speech, with some even hinting on the 92-year-old leader’s retirement edict, but, of course, that was far-fetched.
There was such an avalanche of theories and expectations that the President, for delaying the address, took lashes from the opposition and the media stemming from his attending to Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s funeral first.
There can be no escape from the fact that the Zimbabwean crisis has now, like a cancer, reached a point on the curve, which it had never reached before and answers were frantically sought from the captain of the ship.
However, hugely disappointing was the fact that what emerged from the address is what we have always known: a total and wearing deviation from the tightly-pressing matters of this country; an incredible dodging of the overwhelmingly urgent issues that, on the contrary, are clear to all.
The President’s address was, for want of a civil word, insipid. Zimbabweans had, with bated breath, anticipated fecund pronouncements.
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Zimbabwe is a country saddled with an assortment of crises and people were indeed justified to hold firm prospects.
Zimbabweans and political scientists watched with consternation as the soporific speech came to an implausible end after 28 minutes without, at all, tackling the all-important issues.
A single visit to Zimbabwe will suffice for anyone to see the weighty matters demanding attention in the Southern African country.
It is those areas that had ears cast wide open in eager anticipation for solutions, but this was not going to be.
The President, aberrantly, went on to touch on tangential,
non-essential issues that scarcely have a bearing on the bread of the Zimbabwean people.
He went on to merely scratch the surface of real issues and, in some instances, outrightly shirking some of the red-hot issues like the painful queues at banks that continue to lengthen each day.
Zimbabwe is in the throes of grinding poverty.
Unemployment and retrenchment have become the bywords in the country.
Nothing could have been more soothing to the ear of the crisis-weary Zimbabwean than to hear the first citizen clarify how his government seeks to address the cash crisis, worsening poverty, joblessness, and policy inconsistencies, among other things.
The industry is decaying at an alarming rate. Hospitals are lacking the most basic of drugs, including aspirin. Corruption, quite topical of late, was barely brought under spotlight.
Bungling ministries were barely touched on, leaving the nation to wonder whether this culture of tolerating and, at times, rewarding mediocrity will ever vacate the country’s borders.
Civil servants are itching for timeous payment of their salaries as the festive season beckons.
They are also keen on their bonuses, which were hardly mentioned.
Now, various takes on the Sona have been given in different media, but if there is one lesson that Zimbabweans will learn from last week’s Sona, assuming they have not learnt it already, it is the major realisation that the country has a leadership, which, by default or design, is completely out of sync with the painful reality on the ground.
This major revelation was even further affirmed by Information minister Chris Mushohwe’s utterances when he said: “What crisis is there that warranted the President’s mention of bond notes?”
Surely, Zimbabweans are spending sleepless nights on account of these issues, yet a whole minister has the gall to insinuate that this is nothing of a crisis.
This is precisely the trouble with Zimbabwe’s national leadership: Like I mentioned, whether it is wilful or not, this ruling elite is simply out of touch with the reality of the afflictions of the Zimbabwean people.
They cannot identify with Zimbabweans.
They are lost in a Disneyworld of their own. They don’t identify with the electorate save, perhaps, at election time.
Bond notes, bonuses, the cash crunch and unemployment coupled with continued harassment of vendors and torture are the very things at the heart of the Zimbabwean; the very things in real need of redress.
The minister’s remarks are actually an insult flying in the face of a hungry nation crying for answers from their elected leader.
To add salt to a profusely bleeding wound was the dour National Budget, which surely reads like a horror script to crisis-weary Zimbabweans.
The suffering is set to shift to another level. What with the budget deficit and failure to improve revenue collection, the taxing of airtime to cover health.
Just like in the Sona, Chinamasa skirted the all-encompassing issues, including payment of civil servants’ bonuses.
Zimbabweans, at the end of it all, are now fatigued by this never-ending crisis and a cling-on government.
The triteness of both the Sona and the 2017 National Budget prove the nation has a harsh year in the offing.
