INCOMPETENCE and patronage will ultimately destroy Zanu-PF. Professor Jonathan Moyo’s decision to dismiss the ZBC board, send senior executives on forced leave and institute a forensic audit of the troubled broadcaster has been widely celebrated. This is unfortunate. When common sense is celebrated as innovation it speaks to how little our people have come to expect of our Government.

The failures of the ZBC have been a matter of public record for many years. The real question should be: If the rot at the ZBC is as extensive as we are now learning why did the previous minister do absolutely nothing about it? Through inaction he was complicit to the incompetence. This is a simple and non-controversial point.

While it is tempting to single out the ZBC what is clear is that the rot extends to many other parastatals. It is only that the ZBC has been unfortunate in being exposed.

From the NRZ through to the GMB, incompetence reigns. It is not harsh to call them incompetent because they clearly have not succeeded.

A few weeks ago we read that managers in some parastatals were stealing 300 litres of fuel, every day. Such theft and incompetence is allowed to carry on because of patronage. If not patronage, what else could explain the survival of the hopelessly incompetent ZBC board thus far?

One cannot in good conscience argue that Cuthbert Dube is a management champion. He is not. His failures at Zifa are evidence sufficient of his limited abilities.

Most soccer supporters despise him and believe he is destroying the sport but he is allowed to carry on in that position.

It is hardly surprising that he took his peculiar management skills to the ZBC and ran it to the ground. While StarFM and ZiFM are turning profits on the back of a single radio station, the ZBC is failing with four at its disposal and a monopoly in the television sector.

What is especially troubling is that the demise of the ZBC was a public affair. Why did those responsible do nothing to stop the rot?

My point is that Cuthbert Dube and his equally incompetent friends are less culpable than those that allowed them to carry on.

That is the real scandal and difficult questions must be asked of those in authority.
To argue that sanctions are responsible for the rot at NetOne while Econet and Telecel are declaring profits is an insult to our intelligence.

We have become accustomed to mollycoddling ineptitude and finding any and every excuse to defend those responsible.

Surely we cannot carry on in this way. This is not the way of champions.

Many analysts, even in the opposition, accept that Zanu-PF has great policies. The sticking point is always in the implementation.

If Zanu-PF does not replace the cabal of incompetent managers heading various state enterprises and parastatals, its policies will never reach their full potential.

Some 11 000 tractors meant for distribution by the Reserve Bank, with a view to mechanising the agricultural sector were bought.

Nobody is calling for an audit. How then can we succeed if people can get away with such egregious violations?

The new Government has been speaking of performance-based contracts for senior civil servants. This sounds great on paper but I am not convinced.

If NetOne fails to deliver are we really meant to believe Reward Kangai will be sent packing? I think not.

Will heads roll at the GMB? I fear not. It is not so much that Zanu-PF does not know what is right to do. The problem is that some put political expediency ahead of efficiency and competence. There is a tug of war between the intellectual persuasions of Zanu-PF and it’s political considerations.

This is why nobody should take the idea of performance-based contracts seriously. It will be talked about and applauded but it will not be implemented because implementing it will invariably mean many well-connected but incompetent individuals will find themselves out of employment.

All ministers who have thus far fired nobody are clearly up to no good. Can it be said that all things are well at the GMB?

Is ARDA performing as it should?

Can it be said that there is no need for an audit at the NRZ?

Can we argue that Air Zimbabwe is being managed professionally and competently?

If all of us are in agreement that these entities are failing, why don’t we fire the culprits?

The offenders are buddies to some in power and are allowed to keep their jobs on that basis. That is the truth however, unpalatable.

Yes, sanctions are in place but they are not responsible for many of our failures.

The greater blame lies on incompetent and corrupt managers.

Can we really blame sanctions for the pathetic operations of the passport office where our people are forced to suffer an assortment of indignities in pursuit of a document they are constitutionally entitled to?

A few weeks ago we heard of the alleged gross corruption at CMED.

Has anyone been fired? No, it is business as usual. Will anyone get fired? No.

But what has given birth to this madness? Some intellectual dwarfs dressed in giant political robes have usurped the revolution.

Many of those who chant revolutionary slogans ever so eloquently are ideologically bankrupt, criminally negligent perhaps.

Government is not seen as a chance to uplift the livelihoods of our people but as a chance to profit.

This is why ZBC executives felt no shame taking home handsome salaries while the broadcaster burned. They had no sense of duty.

After Prof Moyo dissolved the ZBC board did he not receive favourable coverage in the very same so-called opposition papers?

It is not so much that these papers enjoy being critical for the sake of being critical.

If the people responsible for running down NRZ and the GMB are fired everyone will celebrate and applaud Zanu-PF.

It will be clear that this Government means business. However, if Zanu-PF continues to protect incompetent individuals then it will remain at the receiving end of negative reports.

This is not rocket science.

While many believe that poor FDI inflows are our great affliction, I do not share that persuasion.

We are clearly in dire straits but a great measure of that is due to our own inadequacies.

Government agencies are inefficient and unimaginative; some of those in power have no sense of community and seek to line their pockets at the expense of the nation.

If Zanu-PF is serious about making Zimbabwe work again it needs to say thank you to the incompetent comrades within its ranks for the little work done thus far and them bid them farewell.

Ndatenda

  •  Ndini muchembere wenyu Amai Jukwa

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