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Zimbabweans should give priority to local products

Edmund Kudzayi Political Mondays

The point I am making is simply that public office does not change a man’s heart. It simply affords him a platform to express his heart on a grand scale facilitated by his office.

If I was asked to explain our present national predicament I would put 70 percent of the blame on our limited intrinsic value as a people and 30 percent blame on poor administration.

It has become fashionable to blame the authorities for everything and anything but in truth the greater part of our problems stem from intrinsic limitation.

This is not a fatalist position, we are evolving and our present circumstances in a way contribute to encouraging better lifestyle choices and forcing better management practices.

Leaders do not fall from the heavens, they are drawn from the people they manage and govern.

Politics does not change a man; it simply reveals what was already inside him. Money illustrates my point. It does not change a man’s heart; it simply reveals what is in it. A man of carnal passions will soon be revealed as such the moment he can afford to pursue his passions. A charitable man’s love for others quickly becomes apparent the moment he gets money to express that charity.

The same is true of public administration.

Who is giving birth to these corrupt police officers, are they not our friends and relatives? Are their corrupt tendencies peculiar to the police or politicians?

Corruption is certainly not peculiar to politicians, even headmasters in schools accept bribes from desperate parents. The point I am making is simply that public office does not change a man’s heart. It simply affords him a platform to express his heart on a grand scale facilitated by his office.

The corrupt traits we decry are societal, not political.

Before it enjoyed the taste of power, the MDC regularly taunted Zanu PF for buying expensive vehicles for ministers, arguing that the country could not afford such ostentation.

After joining government in 2009 these protests suddenly went quiet and senior MDC officials had absolutely no problem being chauffeured in top of the range vehicles at the poor taxpayers expense.

Public officials are drawn from the people and the values they exhibit (good or bad) are simply a magnification of values that you find at the lowest level of society. While the MDC-T opportunistically attacked Zanu PF over expensive vehicles, the fact of the matter is that those protests were not sincerely held.

Our people do not believe in communal thrift. This behaviour is apparent in many struggling enterprises; expensive vehicles are almost always parked outside.

Why don’t the managers of the companies tighten their belts and drive to work in Madza BT50’s as they often demand of government officials?

This concept of base societal values extends to the contentious issue of politically motivated violence. It is not uncommon to find otherwise respectable women cheering on a vicious mob as it savages a suspected thief.

Our common position as a society is that violence is good if the person subjected to it is wrong. It is very difficult to suspend this value when it comes to politics. I have often said if somehow the opposition came to power and Kasukuwere encountered its rowdy youths at Fourth Street kombi rank he would be beaten up in the same way Trudy Stevenson was beaten up.

If we are to resolve the issue of political violence our approach must be broad-based and focus on our general attitude to violence as opposed to trying to isolate and condemn violence in politics while applauding it when it is meted out against what we consider social misfits.

In cases where misfits are subjected to violence by lawless mobs, we called it ‘instant justice.’

What has Zanu PF ever done for me?

If there is one unfettered benefit of independence, it is the right to freely engage in enterprise and profit from it. This is a fundamental freedom that ordinarily underpins sustainable economic development.

However, this freedom to exercise this right can only lead to economic growth if the population has imaginative entrepreneurs and skilled managers.

Take for instance the fact that we are applauded for having set up a robust education system. Our teachers are highly sought-after in the region. For this government accomplishment, however small one might consider it, where is the entrepreneurship taking advantage of this skilled pool of teachers and our reputation as an education focused nation?

One would imagine that entrepreneurs would have started credible academies and schools educating children from the region.

Nothing of the sort happened even when Zimbabwe was at its prime. The few students that came from the region typically went to government schools.

The point I am making here is that our entrepreneurs and managers have demonstrated the very same lack of imagination and efficiency that they routinely accuse government of.

Take for instance products like Crystal sweets. It is little wonder our shelves are stacked with South African confectionary. That inferior local product has not changed since I was a child.

It is easy to ask for innovation from Government but where is the innovation from industry? Are those pathetic sweets uncompetitive because of Zanu PF?

Apart from nostalgic Zimbabweans living in the diaspora, is that product worthy of export? What of Charhons Loose Biscuits? Can that product compete on the shelves on Malaysian supermarkets? So why do we demand of Government that which we consistently fail to do in our little areas of administration?

Many of the Italian suits we proudly wear are made in backyard industries. The same is true of China and Turkey both of which boast thriving backyard industries.

Individuals master a craft and earn a living from it. Would our tailors compete regionally? Can a tailor who has been making clothes for over 20 years stand up and say he is incompetent because of Zanu PF?

How many service stations in this country have clean toilets? Is that a function of Government? Are those service stations not profitable?

What of the person throwing litter through the window of a $200,000 Range Rover? What does that say of his intrinsic value and how he conducts himself in whatever position of authority he enjoys?

Intrinsic value comes first; economic development follows naturally.

Ndatenda.