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NewsDay

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Get your priorities right, Mr President

ZimDecides18
WE would want to understand the predicament that President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his executive team find themselves in.

WE would want to understand the predicament that President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his executive team find themselves in.

Editorial

Zimbabwe is in a dark hole and they are, indeed, groping for answers to fix a broken nation. It’s no easy task, but one which has to be done.

Add to this dire situation a deadly cholera outbreak and you have an explosive situation that no government just coming into power would want to find itself in.

Now this is the time to show commitment to the cause of our country and it should start not with citizens, but those in positions of authority, with Mnangagwa as our frontman.

The President is our best foot forward, or is it? Is it not astounding that a government that shelled millions to give new off-road cars to traditional leaders thinks it can reverse the cholera menace with a measly $1 million at a time when a single corporate has chipped in with $10 million?

Mnangagwa has just appointed a new executive team and it needs no rocket scientist to hazard a guess that preparations are underway to buy them all the trinkets that come with their new lofty positions. At what price, if we may ask?

Our plea to the country’s number one citizen is: Please, get your priorities right. You promised to be a listening President and now, please, listen: The health of the nation is more important than a top-of-the-range Mercedes-Benz for your minister or top bureaucrat!

Listen again Mr President: There is no government without people. There are shouting billboards still standing from your election campaign promising things that you could start to implement now.

Mr President, you want to create a legacy and this is the time. Again, get your priorities right because indications are they are for now a bit skewed!

We would want to support your agenda. No father relies on donations from outside while they drink their salary at the local beerhall. It’s exactly the message you are sending.

You Finance minister has begun a crowd-funding initiative to help save lives. He wants money from the very same citizens who are dying of cholera while he gets the best cars money can buy under the sun. Surely, you can do better.

Of course, we understand our economy is in trouble, but your actions should not be indicating left while you want to turn right.

Get your priorities right, then your commitment to the motherland will not be questioned. For now, we are tempted to think that your allegiances lies elsewhere.

How much did our government led by Mnangagwa spend on former First Lady Grace Mugabe and at her mother’s funeral? By the way, citizens perishing at the hands of a medieval disease are getting paupers’ burials at the extreme end.