Online Reporter
Isdore Guvamombe
Reflections
I have this early morning tendency to sit outside my home and read the day’s newspapers, while enjoying the abundant sunshine of the land of Munhumutapa.
Being a son of a teacher, this is a habit I have grown up with and it morphed into a ritual with journalism.
I have this friend and neighbour, the kind of a person, whom I normally have no-holds-barred talk, call it cash talk or something frank.
We even discuss crass things and we can go really rock-bottom on crass.
One of my crimes according to him, is that I am madly in love with the ruling Zanu PF and especially in the past decade, he has been religiously accusing me of blindly supporting the party.
So, on this early wintry morning, while I was at it outside the house, he slid my gate open and ghosted in.
He refused to sit down and then stared at me. “You guys have started another lie again, Trabablas what, what, what, a big project, blah, blah, blah simply to win elections,’’ he gasped, throwing The Herald newspaper at me.
As usual, he gave me no chance to explain anything and pointed at the story on Mbudzi Roundabout Construction. Then he lit a cigarette, followed up with three half-pulls, then a deep pull and spewed out some smoke with the corner of his mouth, one squinted eye, telling the effects.
Dear reader, wait for the adjunct.
And, so, it turns out that Zimbabweans in their broad totality like things. Good things, for that matter.
This friend of mine, had me laugh to the point of crackling my ribcage, yesterday morning.
Once again, he ghosted in, holding a copy of The Herald and the lead story was the completion of the Trabablas. This time, he invited me on a drive to the interchange, for, to him, seeing is believing.
I refused but he still took off. Later, he told me he had made the rounds at the interchange trying every route again and again and again and again. Again! He was so fascinated.
Am still imagining, him rounding again and again, again and again. Again! Phew!
Trabablas Interchange goes into the history of Zimbabwe and beyond as an infrastructural marvel. I avoid the architectural part. But is a marvel too. It is a legacy project.
Trabablas is a testimony of how local minds can pool their knowledge and resources for the prosperity of the country. Like or hate President Mnangagwa, he has done extremely well on road infrastructure. This a locally funded, locally designed and locally constructed project.
And now to the world far and wide.
Former President Edgar Lungu dies
Sad to hear that our brother, Zambia’s former President Edgar Lungu has died at the age of 68. (MHISRIP)
He had been receiving specialised treatment in South Africa for an undisclosed illness.
Lungu led Zambia for six years from 2015, losing the 2021 election to the current President Hakainde Hichilema.
After that defeat he stepped back from politics but later returned to the fray. He had ambitions to vie for the presidency again, but last year the Constitutional Court barred him from running, ruling that he had already served the maximum two terms allowed by law.
Lungu first became president in January 2015 after winning a special presidential election triggered by the death of Michael Sata.
After completing Sata’s term, he won a further five years in power in 2016 taking just over 50% of the votes.
But after six years at the helm, Lungu was blamed for a struggling economy and high unemployment. He lost in 2021.
Lungu was born 11 November 1956 at Ndola Central Hospital.
After graduating with a LLB in 1981 from the University of Zambia, he joined the Law firm Andrea Masiye and Company in Lusaka. He subsequently underwent military officer training under Zambia National Service (ZNS).
He then returned to practising Law. He then joined politics.
In 2010, Edgar Lungu had his Law practicing licence suspended by the Law Association of Zambia. This was after he was found guilty of professional misconduct.
He claimed that was mere politics.
But for us, we will remember Lungu as a sharp-minded African politician who sought regional intergration and remained in the lane of respecting regional leaders and the independence of other countries.
Lungu had very strong views against homosexuality and became and enemy of the West and the United States of America. On the election he eventually lost.
Ukraine
While the world is seeking lasting peace in Ukraine after Russia launched a protracted special military operation in 2022, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is caught in a web of confusion. He does now want the war, but he does not want peace.
He allowed himself to be puppet of both the European Union and the United States of America.
Events this week point to a soul that is tattered and shredded to pieces by the war, the desire to remain in power, compounded by lack of ethics and deep routed puppetry.
Ukraine’s leadership is derailing peace process in order to cling to power. Not that Zelenskyy does now want peace, but he is now powerless.
While talk were going on between Russia and Ukraine, Zelenskyy bombed civilian targets forcing Russian President Vladimir Putin to accuse Ukraine’s leadership of carrying out terrorist attacks on Russian territory in order to derail peace efforts.
The attacks were the result of decisions made by Ukraine’s top political leadership and that is “undoubtedly a terrorist act”.
“This only confirms our concern that the already illegitimate regime in Kiev, which once seized power, is gradually turning into a terrorist organisation, and its sponsors are becoming accomplices to terrorists,” said Putin.
Ukraine’s leadership is shifting tactics amid mounting losses and as Ukrainian forces retreat along the front line.
Ukraine has repeatedly rejected Russia’s proposals for a short-term ceasefire on humanitarian grounds and it seems the Kiev regime does not want peace at all.
This is further compounded by Ukrainian leadership lacking basic political culture, as evidenced by Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky referring to Russia’s negotiators as “idiots” after Moscow proposed a brief truce to recover fallen soldiers’ bodies.
Of interest is that as of the time of writing, the two countries were on the verge of exchanging about 1 200 prisoners of war.
