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You can bet that one man, Samuel Undenge, is the happiest man in the world.

The man is the Minister of Energy and Power Development.

Well — his happiness — and that of his very conspicuous wife — has nothing to do with him delivering in that capacity as minister of energy.

We all know what crisis we are in, the cold and dark days we have been visited, making perhaps the worst electricity crisis we have known post-independence.

It’s hurting, even though, typically Zimbabwean, the crisis has become fodder for so many jokes and memes in the country.

While the country is so livid at Undenge — some calling for his dismissal or for him to be hanged by something quite painful — our Undenge has received the sympathy and backing of two key offices in this country.

The one is the office and person of President Mugabe who, when he came back from the United Nations recently exonerated the man from blame.

President Mugabe said, “Minister Undenge haasiye anogaya magetsi. (He is not the one who generates electricity).

“Electricity is generated by drawing water from Kariba Dam through the turning of turbines. When dam levels are low, the generating capacity is also low. This previous year we received low rainfall,” he said.

You can imagine Cde Undenge baring his beautiful set of teeth in an eternally grateful smile at this.

When everybody is trying to lynch you and the highest office in the land comes to rescue you, you can only but be grateful to your God and ancestors.

But Undenge is a lucky man.

He has his cup of blessings in full and overflowing measure.

Guess what! He also has the sympathy and understanding of the First Lady!

Oh, could you be luckier on this earth?

On Thursday we saw and heard First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe giving the same explanation that President Mugabe gave in exonerating Undenge.

You could not miss the smile of the man from Chimanimani and the wife actually hugged him in delight.

And to accentuate this joy, Dr Amai actually divined that ministries in general and the energy ministry in particular, needed educated people — educated people like Dr Undenge!

My word, this is absolutely magical; the stuff dreams are made of.

Surreal!

You can trust Dr Amai to have a few choice words on anything she does not like.

She speaks her mind.

She speaks truth to power.

In local parlance, — havana mangwana (she is candid).

Manicaland debacle

And things can only get better for Undenge (and wife).

You see, Manicaland province is riven by factionalism and in this ugly war Undenge, the Zanu-PF acting chair, is hanging by the skin of his teeth.

A putsch was planned a couple of months back but it did not materialise.

At some point he had to beg with his party’s organising chief to help him in this fight, which the commissar apparently did.

But then, in Manicaland there are some powerful elements, along factional lines.

These contending forces were fighting fiercely ahead of the visit by the First Lady.

One faction wanted the rally to be held at Sakubva Stadium, an urban and previous venue of a similar rally by the First Lady while another, with Undenge the chairman himself, wanted it to be held in his constituency in Chimanimani.

There is always a lot of symbolism in all politics.

A visit is especially significant, even socially and from Biblical times (who forgets Mary’s famous visitation to her kinswoman Elizabeth?)

In a visit, like all symbolism, there is endorsement or rejection.

Dr Amai made her choice, perhaps less out of siding with a particular group, as she had sound and logical reasons about wanting to meet the people away from her previous venue.

But the symbolism was manifest all the same — and, again the kiss went to the favoured Undenge.

By the way, earlier President Mugabe had castigated factionalists seeking to steal Undenge’s glory to host the most powerful woman in the country, as the chairman.

Now that Dr Amai favoured Undenge, he can only count his blessings.

He is such a lucky fella.

You would want to be him, at all costs, or his wife!

We all saw how gushing the pair was.

Enjoy it while it lasts

This is sound advice. Undenge’s glory — his moment in the sun — can only last so long.

Soon enough he will be called to do his job, which everyone has been doing, anyway.

The power situation in the country is worrying and we cannot wait to see the lights soon enough.

Many people do not care (even when they should) about the water levels at Kariba or the generators at Hwange.

They also do not care that some other countries in the region are facing the same troubles.

The nature of people — and people endowed with the power to use their votes to change leaders — is that they demand what they want.

Some of these demands are genuine and even are in line with the promises we make, which makes them legitimate demands.

It is the job of the politician to deliver.

Many people expect Minister Undenge to deliver and deliver us from darkness.

A lot of things are tied to the issue of power from the material comforts and conveniences such as having power for your phone to the macroeconomics of industry.

We hope that Minister Undenge realises what is at stake.

The issue of power has the potential to make or break the fortunes of this country.

The fortunes of this country are overseen by President Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF.

Elections are just on the horizon.

Someone please tell Minister Undenge that he has a huge task in his hands, and the whole nation will be watching him.

His principal will be watching him, too.

That is how big the issue is and the sooner Undenge realises this, the better for all of us.

We wish him all the very best.