By Bernard Bwoni
Revolutions just as with any
evolutionary process happen silently. Analysing the boon and bane of any new political
landscape and the transformation it ushers is fine art, or should I say finite.
A new and effective system of checks and balance and politics of maturity and
openness is an absolute necessity in any society. Any ruling party has to be constantly
kept on its toes by a brand of inter-party and intra-party political maturity
by learning to adapt to this uncomfortable but necessary level of scrutiny.
This ascendance towards a mature brand of politics is for those with the moral mettle
and mental stamina to deal with the facts minus any associated emotions.
Zimbabwe is on the verge of an extraordinary economic revival and those working
tirelessly to smoothen the path towards this economic beginning must be lauded.
President Mugabe has made it clear that corruption is detrimental to the
country’s intended destination of economic prosperity and Professor Moyo has
been in the forefront in challenging the degeneracy and dishonesty that has
pervaded many sectors crucial to the country’s economic recovery.
At the moment in Zimbabwe the odds of being arrested for overt corruption
or corrupt practices are evidently very low going by the outcomes from the ongoing
sleaze and kick-back expose`. For a country destined for an inevitable economic
upgrade the ghost of graft will only downgrade and confine the country to the
hollow and shallow ends of the irrecoverable. The flouting of procedures with impunity,
the clear disregard for the same laws that are meant to safeguard the country
from such administrative malfunctions points to the existence of a cushioned and
comfortable class of career politicians who don the uncharitable and law-resistant
garb at the expense of an economically-abused populace. The obscene salaries
paid to the parastatal bosses may have been immoral but not illegal and as such
it is up to those individuals concerned to connect and consult with their own
individual conscience for a corrective closure to the hype around the salaries
scandals.
The case of a high order ranking chief executive on allegations of
inflating prices of specific goods meant for a specific parastatal fabricating
receipts for personal gratification and then clinging onto flimsy counter allegations
to divert the nation’s attention away from his alleged illegal transgressions. Instead
of a precise response to these serious allegations when called to account for alleged
individual financial felonies the best counter one can muster is an
uncorrelated and off-topic outburst based on unrelated allegations of the sexual
orientation of a high ranking senior official only confirms that the cushy culture
of impunity reigns supreme in Zimbabwe. The fact that a senior government
official can stutter for over an hour in a hapless attempt to articulate the
futile legality of his perceived entitlements from a case of shady lobbying
endeavours with one super-rich Billy is disappointing and the eerie silence
from the upper echelons seems to point to unholy upward linkages of folly. Politics
is not meant to be a profession but rather a public duty, the art of
championing the aspirations of the expectant electorate who entrusted the
politicians with their vote. The worry with condoning corruption and
corrupt practices whether deliberate or not is that it erodes people’s trust in
the entire political process. The lethargic
response to all indications of corrupt practices or allegations corruption has
been far from inspiring and nowhere near indicative of that obligatory will to
eliminate the immorality.
Zimbabwe has been cursed with opposition politics laden
with binding imperfections. The nemesis of Zimbabwe politics is that dearth of
a genuinely pertinent and potent counter to the ruling party. The opposition in
any society must never sit idly and be content with the governing party to
wantonly short-change the electorate. An effective and credible opposition will
moderate and critically challenge the government complacency and the resultant
outcomes of these weaknesses. The opposition in Zimbabwe is in disarray, existing,
but non-existent and bottom line wholly unconvincing.
The country is currently facing
what seem like an insurmountable mountain. It is the individual inner dither which
deliberately put spanners in the works, that doubt and dent on the self belief.
It is that devious voice that repeatedly nags you to resign at the crux of the
climax. Some have even resigned to the ‘if whites return to key management
positions in failing parastatals all our economic woes will be resolved’ defeatist
and submissive talk. The argument is that Africans respond positively and
passively to white authority and some strongly believe that has historical
roots. This is such a generalisation that black Africans are more likely to be
productive with a white person at the helm of management or is it? Some from
this generation are too traumatised from the contemptible colonial crimes against
the indigenous black Zimbabweans to embrace the new economic essence that has
been presented to the country. Zimbabwe has
laid the foundations to a new social and economic reality of ownership never to
be witnessed on the continent. These are noble policies centred on uplifting
and upgrading the lives of the previously disadvantaged indigenous people of
Zimbabwe. Post-colonial trauma had no
evidence-based curative prescriptions until the Mugabe-inspired economic
emancipation antidote. This is the only country on the continent that has
totally broken through that brick barrier, a country that has breaking barriers
as opposed to building them.
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