Chronicle Editor
Stephen Mpofu
Underhand activities by which Harare City Council employees are accused of enriching themselves with Bulawayo public transport operators blamed for malpractices, will no doubt have besmirched Zimbabwe’s good name locally and abroad, causing some who intended to do business with us to re-examine their minds.
Harare, as the seat of this country’s government, with Bulawayo the seat of international trade, no doubt feature prominently in the minds of those eager to do business or to nurture political alliances with the government and the people of this country.
A commission of inquiry now underway in our capital city has revealed through evidence given that some Harare council employees have been enriching themselves through various activities involving businesses — and that no doubt taints the image of a council directly under the eyes of this country’s Government.
No doubt more evidence is likely to surface before the enquiry comes to an end.
It is therefore the hope of this humble and law abiding communicologist that Zimbabweans eager to maintain the good name of our seat of governance will leave no stone unturned in providing the enquiry commission with full-proof evidence that will lead to a cleansing of a council that must project the good image of those that anchor a good status for our country’s seat of governance.
In the former City of Kings and Queens and now the seat of international trade, Bulawayo, a police blitz-krieg recently bagged 494 offenders of which 76 were mushikashika drivers, with 109 vehicles impounded.
Bulawayo hosts an international trade fair every year and it is common sense that reasonable international traders wishing to participate at the trade fair each year are likely to develop second thoughts about coming to do business in a city where chaos reigns on the street.
The safety of goods brought for exhibition will no doubt preoccupy the minds of traders who read about the chaos on Bulawayo’s streets and with that wonder if their exhibits will be safe.
Zimbabwe’s good image in the global village is of paramount importance so that, in the first instance, Harare City Council employees and businesses unaware of unorthodox business deals, or corruption, should not hesitate to spill the beans to the commission of enquiry, the objective of which is obviously to clean up the image of businesspeople, councillors and politicians who inhabit our country’s capital city.
When enough, irrefutable evidence about corrupt activities is gathered by the commission, the Government will no doubt consider and implement far-reaching measures intended to cleanse and restore the image of our capital’s city and the country’s seat of government.
Of course, the possibility of those political opponents of our government taking advantage of the corrupt activities as well as of the malpractices of the transport operators to paint a bad image of the state, cannot be ruled out.
But be that as it may, ultimate power remains in the hands of the government to clean up our house of any malpractices that are wont to make Zimbabwe a no-go area by those intending to do business with us, or spending their hard-earned cash on holiday to a country that a few unruly characters render unhospitable through their Satanic activities.
The government’s motto that a country is built by its own people/ ilizwe lakhiwa ngabanikazi balo/nyika inovakwa nevene vayo, equally suggests that we, Zimbabweans, must cleanse our country of any deeds such as the ones suggested above in this discourse.
Procrastination, which is the thief of time, should be banished from those with the power to cleanse up any mess which rears its ugly head in our midst.
derick.khumalo