Hopewell Chin'ono

By Hopewell Chin'ono Why did Garry Mapanzure need to go to Harare? It is because Masvingo Provincial Hospital is dilapidated to a point of not even having a High Blood Pressure checking machine at some point. Next time you see crooks like Wicknell doling money on social media, remember that you are seeing the authors of this healthcare crisis!

By Hopewell Chin'ono On Saturday evening I explained how UNDIPLOMATIC it was for the African delegation that was on a peace mission to Ukraine and Russia to speak about how commodity prices have gone up in Africa to people who are losing lives including children daily in both Ukraine and Russia. The Ukrainian Presidential Adviser said the same thing here a few days later saying that the African Presidents were more concerned about themselves. It was a massive tactical error by our guys. You might discover how difficult life is without your wife or husband when they have left you, the cooking, the cleaning, the bills etc. But you don’t pronounce that when you are negotiating for their return, you talk about things that appeal to them, how much you miss them, how much you love them, how much they mean the world to you.

By Hopewell Chin'ono Yesterday morning was one of the most important milestones in my career as an award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker, when the Emir (King) of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thanihanded handed over the International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award to me in Qatar in the presence of the United Nations Special Advocate for the Prevention of Corruption Dr. Ali Bin Fetais Al-Marri, the United Nations Under Secretary Dr Ghada Waly and President Kagame of Rwanda. I have won the African journalist of the year awards twice, but winning the International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award was an extremely humbling moment because it is not only about my skill set as a journalist, but the issues that I tackle and how they affect the well-being of my compatriots in Zimbabwe.

By Hopewell Chin'ono Africa should NOT judge new presidents on civil service salary increments or nice sounding populist speeches. New African presidents should be judged based on the people that they appoint to serve in their new Governments and judged on whether they are building STRONG state institutions, and finally on their legacy after leaving office. Africa’s demise has been mainly caused by idolizing political leaders instead of idolizing state institutions and deriving a patriotic sentiment from competent institutions not populist personalities. Institutions matter more than people in power because they precede us all, people come and go so a state can’t be modelled on a person. Yes, Zambians can and should applaud it when pensioners get paid their money on time unlike in the past, and when teachers and nurses get salary increments, but that should not be the primary measure of one’s presidency because those are the basics that any Government should deliver. The bar had been set so low by the PF Government such that President Hakainde Hichilema doesn’t need to do much to get a round of applause. But is that how he is going to be measured, based on a corrupt and incompetent previous regime?

By Hopewell Chin’ono When I posted a London Times article saying that Zimbabwean businessman Strive Masiyiwa had become the first black billionaire living in Britain to make it into the iconic The Sunday Times Rich list, there was the usual dark and unrestrained vitriol against him. They hate Strive Masiyiwa who hasn’t forced anyone of us to use his mobile phone service, yet they love crooks that they have christened MBINGA, crooks that steal their tax money through corrupt and looting scams hand in glove with ZANU PF elites.