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The Arena Hildegarde
I did not get it wrong for, the day after tomorrow is a result of the day after yesterday. This is borrowed from a thriller of the same title. The underlying issue though is that the hopes and aspirations of the day after tomorrow are a culmination of what was done the day before yesterday when President Mugabe announced his Cabinet, their deputies and provincial leaders.
Notwithstanding the usual negative comments from armchair critics, the bottom line is that this is a team that President Mugabe believed has the capacity to deal with the challenges as soon as possible. Just like Moses did in Exodus 18:21-23. Moses was advised by his father-in-law to “select capable men from all the people – men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain – and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens . . . ”

Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development, Dr Olivia Muchena signing papers confirming commitment to her new post soon after taking the oath of office before President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday September 11, at State House.

Similarly, the people gave President Mugabe a mandate to choose men and women who would be in charge of the affairs of Government in the next five years.

As I pointed out last week, there is no time for a honeymoon. It’s back to real work. Their hard work will prove doomsayers wrong.
Interestingly, this seems to be a common trend in Africa where the pull him/her down mentality is quite rampant. South African President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday decried the promotion of negativity in the face of positives while addressing journalism students at the Tshwane University of Technology. He said, “When in South Africa, every morning you feel like you must leave this country because the reporting concentrates on the opposite of positive.”

Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa (centre) chats to Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare before taking oath of office at State House on September 11.

Even as the Cabinet announcements were being made on Tuesday, some quarters endorsed President Zuma’s remarks. These critics in their ‘infinite wisdom’ have already passed judgment on the new Cabinet with the so-called independent media having such headlines as: “Mugabe recycles deadwood” (Daily News) and, “Mugabe retains old guard” (Newsday).

It’s as if they live in dreamland, and Zimbabwe is a country they only hear and read about. On Monday, the Daily News wrote, “Still no cabinet” and went on to cite the phantom Facebook character Baba Jukwa as one of its sources. Unfortunately, he discredited himself as he did days before the harmonised elections when he claimed that MDC-T would win the July 31 poll, but this would be followed by violence.
To lend credence to his ludicrous claims, he turned to the prophetic, claiming that this was a prophecy from Prophet T.B. Joshua. The latter distanced himself from the lies, and after that this Facebook character that had taken the MDC-T on fairytale like journey saw its popularity plummeting.

But the reincarnated Baba Jukwa, who wants to give the impression that he is part of the system (Zanu-PF or otherwise), turned whistleblower for the benefit of the MDC-T and its Western backers tried dismally to second-guess President Mugabe’s cabinet line-up.
The Daily News remarked, “In a post on his Facebook page, the faceless but popular Baba Jukwa . . . yesterday (Sunday) said Zimbabweans may even wait for the end of September before the swearing in of Government ministers.”

How gullible can people be, unless of course the Daily News knows the identity of the personality or system behind this? At the time of writing this piece, the new cabinet was being sworn in. What this social media creation called Baba Jukwa needs to be told is that if these antics have worked in other parts of the world, Zimbabwe is unfortunately a different terrain.

The ‘caution’ from this phantom character continues with the Daily News quoting his posting admonishing people: “Zimbabwe, the coming few days are days of intense suspense. As we speak I tell you all that Mugabe has proposed retaining Tsvangirai’s successor apparent Tendai Biti in the Finance Ministry. Other MDC officials from Tsvangirai and Ncube factions are also under consideration; but it will be an embarrassment if the offers are made and then rejected. George Charamba dreads this happening and they have all admitted in meetings this past week”.

President Mugabe congratulates Small and Medium Enterprises and Cooperative Development Minister Sithembiso Nyoni soon after she was sworn into office at State House on September 11.

The last time I checked was that we did not have to wait for days, but just hours before Baba Jukwa’s dreamland became his nightmare.
If the MDC formations had hoped to get cabinet posts through this Facebook character, then this is what we call in Shona “kukwidzwa ndege yamashanga” (flattery or theatre of the absurd).

And, Cde Patrick Chinamasa is now the Finance Minister and not Tendai Biti. Maybe Baba Jukwa needs to be reminded that Biti took over from Cde Chinamasa at the start of the inclusive Government in 2009.

It was just wishful thinking! That Cabinet lineup is Zanu-PF and Zanu-PF alone.
At least Baba Jukwa has given MDC-T something to agonise over as they celebrate their defeat at the 14th anniversary of the formation of their party. MDC-T’s national organising secretary, Nelson Chamisa was reported as saying that as the MDC celebrates, it “will hold a rally to commemorate our 14th anniversary . . .  We did a forensic report and it has damning discoveries which we want to share with the whole country . . . ”

But in my view, the day after tomorrow should not be wasted regurgitating tired issues about the electoral process. The July elections were a process to get us to where we are: seeing elected officials being accountable to the people and ensuring that the new Cabinet delivers beyond the people’s expectations.