Take Charge: Calling time on the thieves in power

By Courage Shumba

Reader, nothing is more annoying than uproar and chants for change in which no single formula or panacea is prescribed.

We must be able to say and act decisively and confidently to serve a notice on the days of an errant, thieving and wasteful government that has not a single good intention for the us the majority.

Anyone who has observed the focus, language and content of our politics in the past thirteen years would be excused for questioning the depth and wisdom of many decisions taken in bringing about an effective : result yielding resistance to a government that simply occupies office to steal.

There have been a lot of sacrifices, we admit. The cost of dealing with a dictatorship is usually paid with the lives of innocent people. Most courageous people have perished, most careers broken fighting for justice.

From the disappearances and killings in the 1980’s, 90’s in those black dog accidents within Zanu PF itself, of some within who dared question the leadership to the murders of opposition figures in recent years you see that it has not been easy or cosy dismantling this dictatorship.

We have had the misfortune of being ruled by poll tricksters and hucksters that survive through deception from one election to another. We are ruled by thieves with no interest in effective government. We need to take charge and bring about an effective government.

To be effective a government must first place itself into the shoes of the citizen. From there it can visualise his obstacles and challenges without dismissing them as a distorted statistic.

A government that wants to know how it feels to be at a university in Zimbabwe must fit the shoes of the student there, if it wants to know and experience our healthcare delivery system it should fit the shoes of a patient in our hospitals.

A government can never fully be of any use to its citizens if its leaders are strangers to the daily experiences of the common man.

Thieves that are worth millions of dollars, who live in mansions, in a country ravaged by unemployment and poverty can not hear the cries of the common man or speak his language. They are blind to his plight. That is our government. Brutal thieves.

I started with suggesting that politics needs to be a business of fixing and preventing problems. In Zimbabwe we have many challenges some natural, some man made. I will leave the natural ones for another day.

As a country we have had a nightmare government which is both moody and unpredictable. It could be in some war in the Congo, it could be starting a youth training college when it cant fund a polytechnic.

It could be crushing down people’s homes or building a super mansion for ministers under the VIP ministers housing scheme. It is a government that operates like a criminal syndicate. It is government that need guidance.

You will know reader, that we are under sanctions. As a result we are suffering. You will have seen people being beaten by police officers, or by war veterans, or by some misguided youths under the orders of some politicians.

I must warn you that such kind of things, such as politicians instructing violent behaviour is a culture that is no longer a practice within Zanu PF only. I know of political parties other than Zanu PF where people do extraordinary things to remain in power. That is not my issue today.

I want to discuss, propose that we the people of Zimbabwe place sanctions on Zanu PF, its companies. I want to suggest that we identify these companies and do no business with them. If they own a soap making plant we avoid it. If they own a bakery we avoid it.

If they sell chickens we avoid them. We are financing these thieves buying houses from their property companies, rings from their jewellery shops, keeping our money in banks where they have shares. We do business with their companies where there are alternatives.

We buy fuel from their gas stations. We do business with netone, telecel supporting companies that are owned by people who are associated with political parties radicalised against our freedom and decent livelihoods. How do we explain that?

How do we seek to find justice if we do not express in plain and visible terms our discomfort in the manner we are governed. If we gather to protest we will be beaten hands down, killed even. We do not have independent airwaves.

Our broadcasting services are partisan and heavily monitored. But that cant force us to spend our money in hotels they own, they cant force us to advertise on their television station, they cannot control how we shop and where we do.

It means if we can identify these Zanu PF businesses we can shun them. If they deal with forex we avoid them. If they sell tyres or shoes we go elsewhere. Only then will they know that we have power, and we have ideas, and we can flex our muscles as citizens.

We must bring the system that feeds corruption down to its knees.

You know that Gushungo is into dairy farming. If he makes cheese and you can identify the brand you must be inspired to ask yourself searching questions about the poverty and quality of life Mugabe has condemned us to before you check out.

Ask yourself about the word makwerekwere and find yourself any justification for that ugly appendage on our humane, kind and hardworking people. Mugabe and his ilk are rich. They have used the state to afford themselves lives of luxury at the expense of common people.

To bring Zanu PF to the table we need to act tough and talk tough. We need to force and shock Zanu PF into a new culture. We are going to be under a Zanu PF government for the next five years. That is not a good thing.

It means unless we act we are going to experience pain, anguish and unnecessary suffering. It means we are going to continue to be degraded as a people. We need to some serious arm twisting. We need to list and publicise businesses that ought to be avoided.

We need to hurt their pockets until they see that we want to be governed like Zimbabweans in this beloved country of our birth. We need freedom, we need choice. We want to be proud husbands of well fed, well dressed, healthy wives and children.

Our ladies need to look good, to regain their decency, to be proud mothers. Today most stand degraded and humiliated by man made poverty caused through greed by politician-cum-businessmen crooks who bleed our country dry, with unnecessary trips, bonuses, allowances and above all that through a hucksteristic politico-criminal racket which steals from the poor.

The solution is to name,shame and shun their business empires, products and services, and drive them out of business until they realise that Zimbabwe is our country too. Its time to take charge.

TAKE CHARGE

Courage Shumba is a member and supporter of the NCA Party and writes in his personal capacity