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There is nothing wrong with the pursuit of novelty and affluence as long as we do it as a nation for our nation, instead of doing it as individuals for our own selfish grandstanding

Nick Mangwana View from the Diaspora
Zimbabwe has seen the proliferation of high-end consumer goods to challenge many high streets in the world. When one enters some households, one can easily feel located in any one of the major capitals of the world. The same applies to some of the cars on the roads. On the face of it, it would seem that there is a lot of prosperity in the country. If one adds the bulging waistlines of some of the people, then one is left with the impression that the people are having it good.

But are they or it’s just consumerism and capitalism gone wild to the detriment of the majority?

Our people just love technology. The tragedy is that in our love for technology we are not seeing an explosion in accelerated hi-tech industrialisation. Industries remain obsolete while the techno mania is all about consumer goods, which fall in the category of here today, gone tomorrow. This has consumed a lot of people that not having some of these trivial fads is frowned upon in a country where some of our people are struggling to just eke a living. Even those without the basics are trifle obsessed. That really is a tragedy for our nation.

One is always disappointed when relatives who are unemployed and receive support from those in the Diaspora always ask to be brought, sent or bought the latest gadget and never engage any means of production, even at a small scale. They are always asking for the latest model of iPhone or newly released type of sneakers. This is coming from someone who is not employed; who is clearly not going to use that iPhone to make a living, but to flaunt and impress, which sounds pathetic in the least to a nation in need of some psychological intervention.

It is good to want affluence.

Some have even coined a phrase called “Kuda zvinhu” the love of things.

But when people with little or next to nothing turn into consumers on a spree who cannot match their love of “things” with their incomes, then this is an invitation to dishonesty.

How can it not be when those with no purchasing power try to mingle with the ostentatious and superfluous by turning to nefarious means to enter the club and remain there. And like everything else this consumerism obeys the law of diminishing returns with an ever elusive destination.

This is one major reason why we are ranking among the highest in corruption and why this corruption does not respect social station and munhu wese achingoba zvezera rake (everyone is corrupt to a standard matching their own social station).

Those accusing public officials of being corrupt are just accusing them of having the capacity to and access to steal more than them. Otherwise they are also guilty of the same vice but only at a less destructive level. They fleece relatives who live outside the country by inflating prices or repairs to houses or cars or even schools fees and the cost of uniforms. Granted, it cannot be compared to the rigging and inflating of tenders at all but the act is the same. Surely, there is a difference between private money and public purse but if the same relative that is inflating prices for the relative in the Diaspora is somehow turned into a public official do you expect him/her all of a sudden to turn into an honest citizen? Turning a mouse into a rat by giving it board in a granary does not stop it from eating nuts. It will just make it fat.

It is because of this pervasive nature of corruption that a lot doubt whether the battle can ever be won. The answer is in the affirmative. But this will only happen if Zimbabwe authorities do show some teeth to fight corruption and we do get those from the higher-end of society in Chikurubi wearing those faded olive green shirts and matching shorts and tyre tread sandals (manyatera). But to totally win there has to be a shift in attitudes brought by globalisation and curb the vulgar consumerism that now afflicts every stratum of our society.

One remembers a conversation in the public house in north London the other day when one made a throw away statement to the effect that everyone in Zanu-PF was corrupt. The comrade from Zanu-PF asked the whole table of 14 people for the person who had never been fleeced or defrauded by a close relative on the projects or transactions they did at home to raise their hand. Nobody raised their hand. It meant that everyone had been a victim of some dishonesty.

The Zanu-PF comrade smiled and asked whether all their relatives and families were Zanu-PF members and supporters to which there were negative grunts. To this he just gave a smile and did not say another word and enjoyed his drink in dramatic silence knowing that he had given them a line to ponder.

It was clear that Zanu-PF represents the Zimbabwean society and reflects the social ills of that society. Because there is vulgar consumerism in our society and you are therefore finding vulgar consumerism in Zanu-PF. But if we do contend that everyone who is dishonesty is Zanu PF then it blows the “rigging” notion out of the water because that will be evidence that nearly everyone is Zanu-PF, why then waste time with NERA?

Does this make Zanu-PF totally blameless? Not by any stretch of the imagination. It is the ruling party and should be at the forefront at waging a war against the criminalisation of our politics. It holds the levers of the State and therefore failure to whole heartedly fight corruption as well as its penchant for protecting culprits leads people to draw uncomfortable inferences. And this is rightly so but let us never walk away from how corruptible our people have become because of consumerism.

The problem with the type of consumerism gripping the nation is that the goods we want are never those made in Zimbabwe because we consider these inferior. We want everything that the next person cannot acquire.

Our children have to go to schools outside the country regardless of what they are studying there and regardless of the fact that our own local schools have better education. Our drink has to be imported to distinguish us from those from the lower end of our society. The same goes for our cars and all other signs of affluence.

This does not grow our own industry. It does not help with employment but surely grows the industry of the countries from which we import all these nice things. This is the major reason why when you meet up with people after a long time, they will always want to walk you to your car even it is parked 200m away. But the second time they would not leave their seats when you depart.

The consumerist politician has lost touch with the public weal. Their primary pre-occupation is now how they can manipulate their way to the public purse for personal gain. This depraved and sordid greed is not short of supporters even from those who occupy offices on high who have also shown a penchant for debauched consumerism and power drunkenness.

A few day old chicks here and a few day old chicks there while welcome is not developmental. It is ephemeral empowerment (if any). The nation expects bigger inspiration and programmes. Not some chickens we erroneously hope will take our people out of this abysmal poverty.

But sometimes instead of handouts we just need to do the simple thing; fight corruption with sincerity. Just do that one thing and the nation will be grateful ever after. For when you do that the nation protects what is rightly its own and won’t need handouts as a transparent nation is a productive nation.

A productive nation is a prosperous nation. That way the whole nation is modernised. There is welcome modernisation such as modern ways of farming. There is also unwelcome modernisation.

Modernisation sometime comes with materialism. This materialism is directly linked to corruption. If the reader would close their eyes right now and think of the most alleged corrupt politician between 1980 and 2000, they would never reach the heights we are seeing now.

This type of thieving is just out of this world. This is because in that period very few Zimbabweans would buy their 16- year-old cars. Even fewer would build a castle to live in when other countries are turning them into museums.

If you can be corrupt at a large scale then you are important enough. In the West there is some type of flaunting of wealth that is considered vulgar and debased unless you are some “hip hop” somebody.

There is nothing wrong with the pursuit of novelty and affluence. But if we do that as a nation for our nation we stand to win much more than if we do it as individual officials for our own selfishness.