By Tanonoka Joseph Whande
President Robert Mugabe is reported to have flown to Singapore once again and we are told he flew there to “retrieve” his wife who is “stranded in Singapore” because she cannot fly back home with her grandchild as per doctors’ orders.
The doctor reportedly declared that the child is not ready to fly yet I wonder what all this has to do with the nation.
That is utter nonsense. Why was this sucker born thousands of miles from home in the first place? Who is paying for all this circus?
Home is where doctors separated co-joined twins in Harare.
Home is where, just a few weeks ago, a doctor, at my former school at St Ambrose’s Matibi Mission, deep in rural Mwenezi, successfully delivered triplets by Caesarian Section.
While Mugabe, his wife, their girl-child and grandchild are gobbling up national resources, there is a campaign back home to raise napkins and milk for the poor mother and her triplets.
Pamberi na Robert Mugabe! The man has vision limited to the walls of any building he is in.
Mugabe and his wife think that we owe them something. And they flaunt their arrogance right in our faces.
I have always been careful not to incite fellow Zimbabweans to do those things that I, being outside Zimbabwe, cannot do.
Yet, I know there is so much anger among us all Zimbabweans – in and outside our country.
I don’t give a damn about Robert Mugabe, the man, who, without any shame, destroyed Zimbabwe to the extent that even homestead family farming, which once fed our families and allowed us to sell excess harvests to pay school fees and buy uniforms for our children, is dead.
Yes, there were spells of draught under Ian Smith and under other colonial governments before Smith. People did not starve then although we were all considered to be sympathetic to what we now laughably call “freedom fighters”.
I recall Ian Smith declaring that he had the “happiest Africans in Africa”. It sounded rude and propagandistic but I grew up in that era and, looking back now, I dare Mugabe disapprove that. I dare him!
I look back now and wonder what it is we really wanted. Did we fail to articulate our aims? Did we just want our kids to sit next to a white kid in school?
Did we want power so as to abuse our own people in a worse way than the colonialists did?
Where are even those fourth grade opportunities that once existed in Indian, Chinese, Japanese and Coloured shops and companies?
Today, Asians, once considered third class, control our entire economy. We all, including Robert Mugabe, have become their servants again – from Africa all the way to China and Japan via India.
In some democratic countries, presidents and prime ministers pick “career diplomats” to represent their governments and countries in different parts of the world.
Career diplomats are not the same as political appointees.
In Africa, especially, political appointees are a leader’s praise singers with little knowledge of foreign affairs. The ‘appointment’ is a reward, not a recognition of ability or understanding of foreign affairs.
Governments open embassies and consulates in other countries for several reasons.
Chief among them being “to assist and protect the citizens of the consul’s own country, and to facilitate trade and friendship between the people of the two countries”.
Spying, which is the major reason for their presence, is not mentioned. But I digress.
In this day and age of instant communication and speeds that mock the speed of light, embassies and consulates have evolved into very important points of contact to quickly defuse any misunderstandings between nations and to assist citizens in their travels.
Like my father said when Americans first landed on the moon: “…they can travel at a speed we never shall understand but, to achieve anything, they must stop, get off their machines and walk with these same legs you and I have.”
It does not appear to me that technology has created better and faster communication between our nations’ leaders. If anything, they do not seem to even appreciate solving conflicts by simply picking up the phone and calling their counterpart.
When Zimbabweans are ill-treated elsewhere or are flogged in Botswana, is Mugabe not able to pick up the phone and call President Ian Khama and ask him to go easy on those Zimbabweans?
They do not do that because each leader has to be advised of what to say to the other leader in advance. Speed is deliberately slowed down to the ordinary level for convenience, just like papa once told me.
So here we are, unable to appreciate our own success or enjoy the alleviation of archaic constraints as people. We should be celebrating the convenience of a Zimbabwean president flying to Abuja for lunch with his Nigerian counterpart and still be home for supper with his family in Harare.
But the easier it has become, the more acrimonious relationships we have developed. It is now a scandal for certain leaders to talk to certain leaders. Leaders who used to talk to each other now need middlemen or proxies to bridge the gap between themselves.
But Embassies and Consulates have purpose of existence: “assist and protect the citizens of the consul’s own country” and “facilitate trade and friendship between the people of the two countries”.
Friendship is a big word; it is important because it paves the way for the opening of embassies between two nations; it encourages citizens of either country to visit the other country.
A few weeks ago, Mugabe took a large delegation to the US for a conference that his Foreign Affairs minister or Environment Affairs minister could have handled alone yet the government failed to come up with $12,000 to fly back home rescued Zimbabwean women stranded in Kuwait where they had been abused and some turned into sex slaves.
The 32 women, out of more than 200, were finally able to get home through assistance from outside government although some MPs took a very active part in their repatriation back home. Many more still remain in Kuwait awaiting assistance to return home.
Sadly though, this past week, I became aware that the Zimbabwean Ambassador to Kuwait, Grey Marongwe, is himself a bitter man because “he struggled for money to bring his wife home for burial when she died last year – and his bosses in Harare would not help”.
Ambassador Marongwe had reportedly not been paid for several months.
In January this year, it was revealed that: “At least ten of Zimbabwe’s 40-plus diplomatic missions are under legal notice for eviction over unpaid rentals with salary arrears for staff, in many cases averaging 12 months, also remaining unpaid.”
And these are the people who are supposed to engage and encourage potential business investors, tourists and visitors to go to Zimbabwe. These are the very same people who should welcome their fellow citizens and assist them in their problems in faraway countries.
I have always wondered why Zimbabwe has so many embassies in Africa and around the world.
Zimbabwe has a very hostile investment climate while property rights are not guaranteed even for citizens.
Zimbabweans in the Diaspora are suspects and are viewed with suspicion on embassy grounds.
How does a Zimbabwean diplomat feel to be running around for Mugabe’s daughter’s child while a poor woman in a rural area somewhere is desperately asking for just a bottle of milk for her three infants?
Maybe it is fair that diplomats are not paid since they do not generate any services or income but are parasites by political appointment and are of no use to the rank and file.
Rambai makashinga, veduwe; we have to take care of Bona’s baby.
