Needed: Leaders who cry for me

Tichaona Zindoga
This could well rank as one of the most improbable propositions: that my leader should cry for me! Not only that, it is also absurd, as people often defeat this notion as they almost always shed tears, faint even, for their leaders whom they consider their material and social betters.

That is, even when they would have elected as leaders their social and material equals.

Suddenly, they often see, and condone the said leaders’ drift away from their former social and economic bracket.

Oh, such grace as people have!

One Zimbabwean singer immortalises such grace that comes natural to the meek, if downtrodden.

He beseeches God to bless these souls that eats “relish-less sadza/yet they want meat for my plate . . . /they are homeless/yet they want me to have a house of my own . . . ” etc.

It is such surfeiting commitment that the people have towards their leaders and other role models.

Only it is sometimes tragic and naïve.

Isn’t there something wrong when the people serve the leaders instead of the leaders serving the people?

What has happened to the concept of servant leadership, which some leaders actually profess to espouse?

Clay Brewer of the Southern Illinois University reviews a body of literature that explores the philosophy of servant leadership.

It is a thousands-of-years-old unique style of leadership ideology which flows against the grain of self-interest human behaviour and has been applied from the church to corporate organisations.

Says Brewer: “Of the various leadership styles, no other leadership style has a deeper or stronger historical base than servant leadership.

The concept of servant leadership can be traced through passages dating back to the 4th century BC, most notably passages documented from Lao-Tzu who lived in China 570 BC. Lao-Tzu was a Chinese philosopher who was deeply influential, his teachings of servanthood were aligned with rescuing society from moral decay (Servant Leadership, 2010).”

Brewer cites the Jesus teachings to his disciples in the New Testament Book of Mark when he instructed his disciples that “whoever wishes to be ruler over others must first be servants themselves”.

Jesus is none other than the man who after an exhausting day of roving dusty roads by foot and preaching the Gospel, he removed the sandals from his disciples then washed their feet before cleansing his own.

Essayist and researcher Robert Greanleaf is hailed as an advocate of servant leadership who, perplexed by the Cultural Revolution and became inquisitive to why the youth of America were so defiant found out that the nucleus of the mutinous movement derived from America’s Institutions inability to adequately serve others.

An Evangelist Billy Graham states that “Tears shed for self are tears of weakness, but tears shed for others are a sign of strength.”
And would this not apply to Zanu-PF’s Joseph Chinotimba whom we heard shed tears in Parliament that his constituents were falling prey to wild animals?

There are some worrying traits that we have seen lately from some Members of Parliament of Zimbabwe, concerning allowances and perks.

They have made headlines and at every turn they have made a case for their “welfare”, which many people find unacceptable.
When Members of Parliament insist on having big, foreign-manufactured cars and spit on the locally assembled ones or even cheaper imports, the desire is to be different from us!

Just as when they, many of them sons of our villagers, demand diplomatic passports to travel abroad on their own personal business.
There are more worrying facts, besides this self-aggrandisement by the elected leaders.

Government has paid some US$20 million to import top-of-the-range vehicles for newly appointed ministers and their deputies while new MPs require US$10 million for vehicles.

Currently it is being reported that Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries (WMMI) is on the verge of collapse because it has not been assembling cars for the past year or so and actually is in arrears to Mazda Japan exceeding US$1,5 million.

The company is majority owned by Government through the Industrial Development Corporation and has been in trouble resulting in its paying its 200 workers half pay for a year.

The workers risk becoming jobless.

Just how many times over would the US$1,5 million WMMI debt be paid of the combined US$30 million for ministers’ and MPs’ cars?

The workers of WMMI will be fully remunerated and new jobs will even be created through a patriotic injection of car funds into WMMI.
Is this development and job creation?

On the other hand, how should we trust the leadership when they talk about protecting local industry by restricting imports when they do not walk the talk?

It is more like the current situation on the roads whereby a lot of carnage is occurring while our roads are probably the most heavily policed (as in personnel, at least).

The fact of the matter is that most of the kombis on the roads are owned by police officers, most of them senior; most of them known.

They are daily allowed to get away with murder.

This is the same affliction in the Central Business District of Harare.

Pretty so often, there are pronouncements to the effect of “decongesting the city” and cracking down on errant kombis, but it all comes to naught simply because the kingdom of kombi owners cannot fight on its own.

It is a worrying status quo, which the senior police officers, with conflict of interest, work for their own good not for the larger populace which they must serve.

The same big men, who should really be small, Jesus-style, will no doubt purchase big vehicles that enable them to look down upon the people they serve!

One wonders whether the days of Thomas Sankara will be back again.

Sankara was Burkina Faso’s president from August 1983 until his assassination on October 15, 1987.

His story is the epitome of servant leadership.

He began by purging the deeply entrenched bureaucratic and institutional corruption in Burkina Faso and slashed the salaries of ministers and sold off the fleet of exotic cars in the president’s convoy, opting instead for the cheapest brand of car available in Burkina Faso, Renault 5.

His salary was US$450 per month and he refused to use the air conditioning units in his office, saying that he felt guilty doing so, since very few of his country people could afford it.

One may not be too sure where MP Joseph Chinotimba stands regarding expensive vehicles brought through the taxation of his poor subjects, but if he can have the empathy to cry for his constituency, he fits the bill of a servant leader.

He may not hesitate to cleanse my soiled feet, like Jesus.