Chronicle Editor
Martin Stobart, Lupane
Editor — Those of us who treasure reading will have not missed the story of Ali Baba and The Forty Thieves as told in the Arabian Knights’ Entertainment tales.
Plato narrates graphically in my opinion, of the fate of Roman philosopher Socrates. I can even go further, with pleasure ad remind the readers of this esteemed paper the fate of Jesus Christ as recorded in the widely read Book in the world and in the history of human kind post-Anno Domini.
I am not a religious person and so my liking of Jesus is really pure and simple and down to earth: Jesus was a human rights activist through and through.
He hated the tax collector and the stinking rich, the oppressors, the corrupt and those who “joined land to land and house” till there was no space left for the poor. Hence the Pharisees hated him to the bone and it is common cause why and how he came to his demise.
What about Ali Baba and his gang?
Well . . . well . . . in our modern Ali Babas and their thieves steal from the poor but they cannot get rich. They are openly corrupt. They can, when it suits them and which is often the case, capture a whole community under a vice grip.
They steal from the poor and elderly and even the indigent. Social media is a platform for the craven coward, the Ali Babas and their gangs. I use the conventional media as a platform to air my views.
Lupane town epitomises the Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah; and I am echoing what some residents say. Contrary to the “social media”, this writer was never at any time before a commissioner of the Lupane Local Board but a caretaker.
He was never dismissed, at least he never received a letter of dismissal from any quarter or source. The writer’s term of office as a caretaker came to an honourable end on the eve of the 2013 general elections according to the law of the land, and he is in possession of the Permanent Secretary’s correspondence to the LLB town secretary to that effect.
Only the corrupt and the thieving and those who abuse their positions can get dismissed and they are never ashamed! They are steeped in corruption. They were baptised into corruption by immersion, like they do in some churches. For crying out loud, Lupane town badly needs to be rescued from its captors.
The only people who are making useful investment at the provincial capital are those who come from other provinces. Their houses have conspicuous quality designs and they are fast becoming dominant players in the economy and business affairs of the community.
Education is the investment needed in life. Come to think of it, “settlers” from other provinces are becoming the employers of the locals, the so-called 41 is no more than an ID number.
Some people in the world have been corrupt big time. They have invested their “ill-gotten” gains wisely and have created employment, and others have become philanthropists. Because they are educated, they are not selfish and cruel.
The Zimbabwe Constitution is abundantly clear and unambiguous that local authorities must be accountable, transparent and responsive. Corrupt residents are only happy when the foregoing are absent in a local authority, for obvious reasons.
Like Socrates to the Romans, to the corrupt of Lupane town, I am a peddler of heresy and like Jesus Christ to the Pharisees to them I am a rubble rouser.
But then didn’t someone say that the truth makes one few friends but they are the right ones, while yet another observed that the truth is as stubborn as a mule. The truth is that Lupane town is a toy town.
The town is captured.
Online Reporter