Fawning messages as declaration of loyalty – MuckRaker

Alice’s wonderland
Zimbabwe has visionary leadership whose ideas are now being copied by the Western world like the Look East policy, Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Indonesia and Singapore, Alice Mageza, said recently.
“It is interesting to note the West is now looking East when we had last looked East. Zimbabwe should follow the same route as Singapore,” she said.

Singapore, of course, has long looked West for investment and trade. So has China. These successful economies are hardly likely to embrace failed cases such as Zimbabwe. The Singaporeans will have heard of the stalled Essar deal from Indians and official obstacles thrown in their path.

And while we are on the subject of success stories, it might be worth mentioning that the ultimate success story, Singapore Airlines, is government-owned but free to manage its own affairs.
How does that compare with Air Zimbabwe or any other public entity? And why do none of these success stories show their confidence in Zimbabwe by flying in here?

After all, who would seriously want to embrace a model of a country which doesn’t even have its own currency? Mageza was woolgathering. She is clearly not serious.

Youth funds

Also catching our attention was a report in NewsDay that Zanu PF youths were failing to repay their business start-up loans. Of course, they blamed the banks for imposing tough repayment conditions.

We also gathered that former youth minister Saviour Kasukuwere’s brother Tongai had been the lucky beneficiary of the lion’s share of the US$20 million Youth Fund.

“There are a number of factors occasioned by the disbursing institutions like the time lag between application and receipt of funds,” the party’s director of indigenisation, Kurai Masenyama declared.

“We thus call upon the banks and responsible authorities to interrogate holistically the issue of non-performing youth loans and take appropriate remedial action.”

So it’s got nothing to do with Zanu PF youths taking advantage of the fund. It’s all the fault of the banks. The application process was too cumbersome, Masenyama complained. It was “unfair to blame the young people” for the non-performance of their loans.

We wonder whether an outfit calling itself War Veterans’ Kids that has been demonstrating recently has found its way to the Youth Fund yet?

The so-called youths who got the money are simply not entrepeneurs but myopic looters. They must pay back the money they obviously used to fund their unsustainable lifestyles, something they learnt from their political handlers. Zanu PF youths must understand there is no dignity quite so impressive, and no independence quite so important, as living within your means.

Ankomah back

And we see our old friend Baffour Ankomah (who was spotted around Alpha Media Holdings offices recently) is back in the opinion columns of the Herald. He is once again holding up Zimbabwe’s leadership as a shining example to Africa. Thabo Mbeki is placed in the same glorious company of fading nor even failed ationalists.

Ankomah is the editor of New African magazine which is, among other things, a propaganda agency for Zanu PF. He is a recent convert to their indigenisation agenda. Like Reason Wafawarova, he prefers to live in the comfort of foreign lands while denouncing his hosts like a dog that bites the hand that feeds it, in his case in London where his magazine is published.

What we want to know is where his funding comes from. In the interest of the public record, please can he tell us if he doesn’t mind.

Zuma’s ‘fire pool’

South African President Jacob Zuma has drawn fire this week for his extravagant spending, most notably the conversion of his Nkandla home, sharply criticised by the Public Protector.

We liked the remark by Minister of Public Works Thulas Nxesi that the swimming pool was really a “fire pool”.

As commentator Xolela Mangcu put it: “What do you take us for chief?”

He asked a further question. “Why would Zuma need a medical facility, a police station and a bunker at his home when neither Thabo Mbeki nor Nelson Mandela had any need for these?”

Like Zanu PF youths, Zuma must know that the secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have and be able to lose all the desire for things you can’t afford.

If you are chasing money, you will live running all your life, but if you are chasing your dreams, you will be living with a purpose all your life. These are some free tips about life to Zuma and spoilt brats (always crying and screaming their heads off for freebies) looting under the banner of Zanu PF youths.