It must be hard to be a Zimbabwean in these early stages of the year. It seems we are spoilt for choices or rather we are lost in the promise of promises.
Opinion by Tapiwa Gomo
We are just emerging from 2012 where politicians attempted to embalm our hearts with promises of Canaan where their parties intend to lead us. Just in November, Finance minister Tendai Biti presented the National Budget for 2013 laying out the deliverables for the year. We tent to base our future development on politics and economics for purposes of accountability and measurability. So with the political parties’ economic blueprints and the National Budget, we were sure that come January 1 2013, it’s all set for implementation.
But Emmanuel Makandiwa, the prophet as they call him, seems to have thrown a new spin to our earthly choreographed life.
Where we are supposed to analyse policies, we find ourselves in that awkward situation where the analysis has to transcend economics and politics to include prophecies. From the way I was brought up, that is usually a no-go area.
Yes, religion knows no questioning or accountability.
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But then we cannot ignore the fact that we are sandwiched by promises of economic, political and religious nature. Where MDC-T is promising a million jobs in five years and Zanu PF is promising to indigenise the economy through local ownership of companies, Makandiwa says he sees “gold coming to the surface. People are going to be picking up gold without any drilling”. Do you, therefore, take a place in the MDC-T queue for a million jobs in five years or join the Zanu PF crusade of indigenising foreign-owned companies or rather you start gleaning the sands of Seke, Marondera, Chiweshe, Zaka, Zhombe, Tsholotsho, Enthumbane or Isigodini for the promised gold. Unfortunately from the look of things, one can only be in one place lest you lose all of them. It is quite a tall order and strategic thinking is of paramount importance. It is pretty easy to dismiss this as one of those fibs or trivialities.
Yes, we live in a world of science, planning, forecasting, budgeting, policies, programming and implementing. Anything out of these processes is considered vain, porous and, therefore, insignificant. We live in a predictable world where if you anger a capitalist, the economy wakes up grumpy. Perhaps the question is: Where does prophecy fit into this scheme of things?
This is not to question whether Makandiwa is a true or false prophet. That is not for me to say.
If it works for you then it is true to you. And if it does not work for you then it may look or sound false to you. How you rate him is surely up to you. Just like if you benefit from Zanu PF or MDC-T policies, you take your pick.
But there is something interesting here. Makandiwa has given the media something to talk about.
We read more about our ministers, the same people who develop our national development policies, also consulting prophets.
Some are reported to have gone as far as Nigeria to consult TB Joshua, while others especially those who believe in indigenisation are on record advocating for local prophets. Either way, most of our policymakers are seemingly driven by prophecy. Just how much does prophecy play a part in their policy debates?
The Rotina Mavhunga story is still fresh in our minds, just the same way as the discovery of diamonds. Stories emerging from behind the scenes suggest that the existence of diamonds has always been known to those who were farming in those areas. Stories are told of how few farm workers were selected to pick the precious stones purportedly to feed the farmer’s fish.
Surely “picking gold” from the surface sounds sexy and titillating, but to what extent are our leaders’ idea influenced by prophecy and is it good for the country? To what extent does Makandiwa’s “gold from heaven” influence policymakers and the behaviour of the people? Why wait for a job that may come in five years time when if gold is upon us?
Of course, political parties add figures and statistics to their projections, but in the prophecy we don’t know how many people or how much gold will be picked from the surface. If we knew, then it would make it easy for national planning and prepositioning gold markets.
Unlike diamonds which can appear as compounds or pickable stones, gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal and appears often in free elemental form, as nuggets or grains in rocks or in alluvial deposits. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as compounds, which, therefore, makes the “picking of gold” surely a miracle to look forward to.
Whichever way one chooses, we have a long year filled with promises indeed. One just needs to make the right choices, gold on the surface, a million jobs in five years and indigenisation. One can only wish for all three to come together where a gold korokoza sells gold to an indigenous entrepreneur who will further contribute to the creation of a million jobs in five years.