I remember growing up in the high-density suburbs just after independence, filled with so much hope and excitement for the opportunities and prospects that liberation was going to bring.
The 1980s was the decade when everything functioned. There were no potholes, no load-shedding. Council water was not only available for everyone, it was the best in Africa. British Airways refuelled their jumbo jets with water at only two points in Africa: Harare and Cairo.
Our country was buzzing. We all had a sense of pride. Those were the days when The Herald reported objectively. Everyone wanted to read The Herald. It was full of proper news and educational material.
The Herald had a section called Letters to the Editor. People wrote in with their concerns, especially those surrounding governance.
It was a vibrant section, and the editors took residents’ concerns seriously. They would write to those responsible, pressing them for answers. I remember two letters written by white men during the time Solomon Tawengwa was mayor.
In one, the author complained about faulty streetlights he had seen along Beatrice Road as he drove into Harare from Chivu.
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He said he counted about seven streetlights that were not working and lamented that standards were going down.
Tawengwa was given a chance to respond. He came out guns blazing, accusing the author of racism and trying to paint black people in a bad light. He mocked the writer, asking why he worried about a mere seven streetlights when he had driven hundreds of miles in the dark before reaching the edge of Harare. At the time, some of us naively agreed with Tawengwa’s logic.
But his response got pushback from other readers. They argued that you do not need streetlights on the highway. The farms were properly fenced and few people crossed those roads at night, unlike in Harare.
All the energy Tawengwa spent on arrogant answers could have been used to push his workers to fix the lights. Instead, he saw enemies in people who were only trying to keep the city functioning.
There was another complaint directed at Tawengwa after he bought himself a 4x4. Residents questioned the logic of getting a 4x4 when the mayor already had a Rolls Royce, a Mercedes Benz, and two other mayoral vehicles.
Tawengwa responded arrogantly. He asked the author whether they expected a man of his frame to fit in a Renault R4. He said the council had to purchase a 4x4 for him because parts of Harare were no longer accessible due to potholes.
That got him in hot soup. More residents joined the conversation, telling him it was his duty to fix the potholes, not to buy a car that could drive through them.
During that time, the white folks acted as our gatekeepers. They had experienced better standards of living and knew the dangers of failing to maintain infrastructure.
Unfortunately for many of us, we still carried the wounds of racial injustice. It clouded our judgement. We took sides with Tawengwa and Mugabe, not realising that maintenance of infrastructure is not a racial issue. It is a necessary part of how governments work.
Faced with such arrogance, the whites stopped writing letters to the editor. The Herald moved from being an objective newspaper to one that was subjective.
I rue the day the white man left the stage. We were left with a majority that did not have the knowledge and experience of how to run things.
We moved from having only seven faulty streetlights on Beatrice Road to having seven functional streetlights in the whole of Harare.
Looking back, I now live in the leafy suburbs where the white man used to live. I am surrounded by darkness and countless potholes that Solomon Tawengwa refused to fix.
I no longer have the objective Herald. I have limited WhatsApp groups where I vent my anger at an almost lost cause.
Wait a minute. Now I am the white man. I see what those people were standing up for.
I am fighting the same battles for good water, better roads, better governance.
If only those people who were fighting these battles had carried on a little longer, we would have had a better country. We would have joined them in calling out incompetent officials.
Most of us confused lawlessness for independence. That is why you see some of us drinking and driving, drinking in public places not designated for it, playing loud music and disturbing the peace. We thought those challenging us were doing it because we were black. We did not realise that the maintenance of law and order has nothing to do with race. As the new inhabitants of the leafy suburbs, it is up to all of us to stand up for what is right, regardless of our differences. Right will always be right.
By the way Tawengwa was also the first mayor who got into serious corruption in his mayoral days. He faced allegations in 2002 regarding the sale of a council stand to his company, Solta Trading, while in office.