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Tendai Biti

Reason Wafaraova On Thursday

Criminals have used political authority as a shield to get these unscrupulous deals to sail through unabated in broad daylight, and that is a very sad chapter of the country’s revolution

Many Zimbabweans will find it intriguing that warring politicians suddenly become ambassadors of accountability, if only to bring down their adversaries.

His erstwhile comrades have told us more about Morgan Tsvangirai’s shortcomings than his opponents in the ruling party, but only after these people fell out with the MDC-T leader. Tendai Biti convinces us more about Tsvangirai’s unaccountability than anyone else can ever do, but he once told us all that the man was the best thing that ever happened to Zimbabwean politics.

Temba Mliswa

Now we have been kept entertained by the media dramas of warring ZANU-PF elements for the past six months, and we have seen suspensions, expulsions, exclusions, exposures, and all manner of mudslinging. Suddenly we now have details of the source of Temba Mliswa’s “sudden wealth”, or at least of the appearance of it; something that he used to pompously carry around.

Not only are we now aware that Mliswa borrowed well beyond his means, or was allowed to borrow well beyond his means, but we also now know that he was pretty much enjoying some self-imposed measure of immunity from the natural consequences of failing to pay debts, up until his self-given political immunity went up in smoke through expulsion from the ruling party.

And we hear that elderly Didymus Mutasa has been freely living in a council owned house since 1984, and his expulsion seems to have given the Rusape Town Council courage to demand accountability from the veteran politician. He has what appears to be a genuine “why now” question, and I am sure the council will need to answer that one. My advice would be to tell him “because we can now lay our hands on you.”

We must understand that the basis of authority is the poverty of society in objects of consumption, and this is why political leadership in countries of great lack can assume not only greater control of people’s individual lives, but also immeasurable impunity.

This unwarranted control over people’s individual lives and this impunity is what leads our politicians into abusing authority; using it to acquire wealth without paying for it, to abuse the banking sector, to abuse our local government authorities, to abuse our tender systems, and so on and so forth.

Zimbabwe is counted among the revolutionary countries of the 21st Century, thanks to the revolutionary ideology of ZANU-PF, of course headed by the principled nature of party leader President Robert Mugabe.

Didymus Mutasa

However, the current developments within and outside ZANU-PF clearly show that counter and pseudo revolutionaries have smitten the revolution.

In a country where shortages define the direction of the economy, the end result is always the struggle of each against all. We cannot preach unity in poverty, we cannot promote progressive culture in economic chaos, and we must come to an understanding that the vices of crime that we see today are largely a product of stalling development.

Let us look at how authority works. When there are enough goods in a store and there are enough jobs around to earn all eligible working people some disposable income, the purchasers can come into the store whenever they want to.

When there are fewer goods the purchasers are compelled to stand in a line, or in the worst-case scenario, to scramble for the scarce goods. When the lines get longer and unbearable it becomes necessary to appoint policemen to keep order. That is the starting point of the power of bureaucracy, when the man with authority determines who gets something and who has got to wait.

Because there is not enough money to buy houses, some people have used the bureaucratic authority in Zimbabwe to get desperate Zimbabweans to line up for “cheap houses”, in the process conning the masses to part with the hard earned little cash at their disposal. Criminals have used political authority as a shield to get these unscrupulous deals to sail through unabated in broad daylight, and that is a very sad chapter of the country’s revolution.

When there are enough jobs in a country people can move from one job to another as they so wish, but when there aren’t enough jobs waiting lists begin to emerge, leading to long queues for employment.

The man with power begins to determine who gets what job and who has to wait. This is the breeding ground for nepotism, sexism, corruption, and abuse of power.

We have this despicable habit where employed women in the public and private sector are being held to ransom by predatory sexists who sexually abuse our professional womenfolk simply because they cannot afford to lose their jobs. Women have been abused for mere prospective job opportunities, and it is this abuse of bureaucratic authority that has brought our accountability system down.

Waiting for jobs in our country is hardly an option any more as things stand, and this is why our unemployed have resorted to informal means of earning income, with some resorting to crime.

We have seen that even in the informal economic settings, bureaucratic authority has started to emerge, and that is why some politicians have been collecting illegal rank tax from operators of commuter mini buses, even from market vendors, and other informal traders.

We have seen the informal trade bursting right into the Harare CBD, and our opportunistic politicians are desperately trying to figure out how best to benefit from the chaos — so the opposition is backing the chaotic CBD vendor invasion, while the ruling party is trying to assert its authority on who has to do vending where, and why.

Politicians do not make promises because they know how to fix economic problems; they make promises because there are gullible people around. We can only rid ourselves of the bane of the unproductive politician if we begin to see political issues beyond personalities.

Human life is uttered by the politician with the sole object of keeping the masses in deception, and that is why our lives are no longer sacred.

When I see politicians pumping us up about the sanctity of human life, all I can see is this confronting contradiction.

We are talking about people who view labour and life as articles for sale and purchase, and this slave age mentality must not have room in today’s society.

ZANU-PF is a revolutionary party with a good liberation history, but there are counter-revolutionaries within who believe the party must lean upon the masses for votes, but serving the bourgeoisies in its practice.

If this does not change in the near future, the party must of necessity sense the smells wafted from the waiting grave.

There is need to remember the masses more during non-election times than during electioneering.

The silence from the Ministries of Mines and Energy and Youth Development and Indigenisation is a huge contradiction to what we saw in the run up to the 2013 elections.

Not many Zimbabweans know who is heading the Youth Ministry right now after Kasukuwere left, and Walter Chidhakwa must have been shocked into silence by whatever challenges there are at the Mines Ministry, albeit after a superhero entry into that portfolio.

There must be greater noise now in the implementation of the election promises made in line with the functions of these Ministries than there was during electioneering, and I am making a reckless assumption that there is implementation in progress.

That is how revolutions work.

A revolution must not allow the bourgeoisie politician room to impose his moral philosophy upon the suffering masses. It is the philosophy of the masses that must determine the direction of the revolution.

No longer must the Zimbabwean endure the fact that the concrete evils of kleptocracy are concealed under fanciful moral rhetoric. The politician must no longer be allowed to hide his evil under the goodness of the principle of patriotism.

No longer should our politician be allowed room to ride on the suffering of our masses to enhance his political fortunes. No longer should the vote-hunting politician use the plight of our people as political fodder.

No longer should the stand-for-nothing politician be allowed room to jump from one political party to another, and from one ideology to the next — all in a bid to secure undeserved political office.

No longer should the treacherous politician use the power of the foreigner to determine the course of political events in our country.

We are a country born out of a revolution, and we owe Africa and the world the true definition of a successful revolution.

The appeal to abstract high-sounding morals of political correctness is not just a philosophic mistake by overexcited individuals, but also a necessary element in the mechanics of deceiving the masses.

The sad chapter for Zimbabwe must close, and the power to open a new chapter is in the hands of our most enduring and hard working nationals.

Zimbabwe we are one and together we will overcome. It is homeland or death!!

 REASON WAFAWAROVA is a political writer based in SYDNEY, Australia.