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Stephen Mpofu
There are two particular situations which are becoming inexorably more hideous and pregnant with intrigue by the day, and a third over which human-kind has no control, but all three of which need decisive action by the government and the people of Zimbabwe to pave a clearer way into the future.
The making of what should truly pass as a Zimbabwean constitution appears to be what former Iraq President Saddam Hussein would call the mother of all challenges for this mineral rich Southern African state.
Right now work on writing a final draft of a supreme law, making Zimbabweans masters of their own, is bogged down in disagreement by those charged with producing the constitution as a blueprint of our Zimbabweaness. Dual citizenship is mentioned as one of numerous sticking points that have stalled work on the final document which must be subjected to a referendum for approval by the population of this country.
But honestly, how many Zimbabweans after freeing themselves from rule by a foreign culture that oppressed them dearly want to return to their vomit by aligning one hemisphere of their heart to this independent and sovereign motherland and the other hemisphere to a foreign country by becoming citizens of two different countries at the same time.
This pen is persuaded by the ridiculousness of such split loyalties to say that genuine Zimbabweans hardly crave such a situation. The truth remains and it can only be that some Zimbabweans representing political parties have been infiltrated by the enemy of this country and have become lackies of imperialism.
But how can people saved from the mouth of a political predator willfully herd themselves back to the den of the beasts when the future holds out rosier prospects for them economically and socially.
The sellouts will shy away from the answer to the question which is that they suffered no pain but slept through the revolution that wrenched Zimbabwe from an otherwise iron grip of colonial rulers. Nor will they openly admit that they do the dirty work in exchange for their obscene love of money, which happens to be the source of all evil, and for support in their quest to rise to political power by hook or by crook.
Other, Satanic plans having failed to achieve regime change while Zanu-PF ruled the country alone, the enemy is apparently trying this time around to achieve its hyena’s goal by a master stroke — deploying its Zimbabwean stooges to sabotage their own freedom for the benefit of their paymasters.
Claims by some parties that amendments made to the draft constitution to include views by the Zimbabwean public, deliberately omitted from the draft, are “Zanu-PF amendments” are meant to discredit the revolutionary party obviously feels it has the duty and responsibility to safeguard the gains of the revolution for the people of this country.
Those who oppose incorporating the views of the wider Zimbabwean public into a new constitution should be exposed for hiding behind their finger while doing some spade work for the enemy for this country and be dealt with decisively by voters to bring to an end their duplicating ones and for all times.
The ballot box is the fitful death knell for political leaders who are sellouts along with their organisations, to clear the deck for patriotic Zimbabweans to be their own benefactors through the exploitation of the country’s rich natural resources.
Foreigners who push for dual citizenship through their Zimbabwean mouthpieces want to settle in this country as citizens in order to exploit our resources, blew them or income accruing from them out of Zimbabwe and to their native countries, or mess around with our politics with the knowledge that if expelled from this country they can always return home to their motherland, losing nothing in the process.
Then there is the question of Bulawayo otherwise Zimbabwe’s industrial hub but which has apparently become a pawn of power politics now systematically killing the goose that once produced Zimbabwe’s golden eggs.
There certainly appears to be more than what meets the eye in the contest for political supremacy in the city between the two MDC factions with Professor Welshman Ncube blaming Finance Minister Tendai Biti, of MDC-T, for failing to release more money from the Distressed Industries and Marginalised Areas Fund to end closures of industries in Bulawayo or their flight to other cities. A decrease in the city’s population growth, exposed by a recent population census as a result of workers leaving to seek their fortunes over the border, surely paints a grim future for Zimbabwe’s second largest city — which should persuade the government to take decisive action to restore Bulawayo’s industrial glory for the benefit of the country.
The third serious situation alluded to above concerns serious drought looming ahead in many parts of the country, especially in the Matabeleland region, the Midlands and Masvingo provinces and in parts of Manicaland where people are threatened with severe drought as a result of erratic or no rainfall at all with livestock exposed to greater danger in some areas.
We have here at last a manifestation of the global warming phenomenon that Zimbabweans have talked so much about for such a long time yet with little, if any, tangible measure being put in place to avert or mitigate the effects of gloomy years ahead of the nation.
Yes, measure have been taken to supply stock feeds to try to save livestock in Matabeleland South Province where people have already lost huge numbers of their animals to drought.
Fears of similar livestock losses now haunt owners in Mberengwa district of the Midlands province and in Masvingo with a negligible number of water reservoirs likely to be overwhelmed if no meaningful falls are recorded.
The drought situation should make the government and other stakeholders come up with measures to reduce the impact on people and livestock of the drought that could recur for years to come with more devastating consequences.
The government might wish quickly to set up global warming crisis teams to embark on such measures as will minimise suffering among the people and the country’s national herd. In this regard it is probably prudent for the powers that be to consider the validity of the saying: “A stitch in time serves nine” by building stock piles of food for both people and livestock before the situation gets worse.
People should also be taught the virtues of conserving food that many households tend to throw away as waste after preparing more than what they can consume at a particular time.
Frugality with food, as with money, should be part of a wider culture of food conservation to tide the nation over in more difficult circumstances.
Online Reporter