via Bulawayo24 NEWS | Salarygate – Zimbabweans sold a dummy by Obert Gutu 28 March 2014
The public outrage over the so-called Salarygate scandal is very much normal and expected.
However, Zimbabweans have been sold a dummy regarding the REAL cause of this offending and outrageous scandal.
Most of the times people make the mistake of rushing to cure the symptoms of a disease instead of taking urgent measures to cure the disease itself.
Let me begin by stating that I have no brief for the men and women who are/were caught up in the Salarygate scandal.
Who, amongst any right-thinking persons, would refuse to be paid a hefty salary package at his/ her workplace, all things being equal? Given the same opportunity, most, if not all of us, would have gladly accepted the handsome salary packages and other juicy perks that go with the job.
That is the nature of all normal human beings. So, we shouldn’t adopt a holier-than-thou attitude on this issue!
The root cause of the Salarygate scandal is the near dysfunctional and incorrigibly corrupt system of misgovernance in most, if not all, parastatals and other State-owned corporations.
The systems in these organizations have, over the years, been allowed to degenerate and rot beyond redemption.
That is the REAL cause of this so-called Salarygate scandal. In most government departments and parastatals, there are simply no checks and balances.
There is hardly any monitoring and evaluation. Management and workers have no clearly defined trajectory setting out what is supposed to be their input in order to achieve a certain output.
I was a deputy minister in the Ministry of Justice & Legal Affairs for more than three(3) years and I know exactly what I am talking about here.
During my tenure as a deputy minister, I toured several prison farms at Chikurubi, Bindura, Banket, Mazoe, Chinhoyi and Mt.Darwin. What I saw shocked me.
These farms are all located in prime farming zones and one would expect them to be profitably run and thus be able to easily provide sufficient food for the country’s 47 prisons.
In fact, these farms, if profitably run , should make our prison and correctional services a viable business ; capable of producing agricultural and even horticultural produce for export.
In October 2012, I paid an official visit to Mexico and I toured a number of prisons.
I saw, first hand, how a prison farm can be operated as an industrial and commercial enterprise.
But, isn’t it a total surprise that we read stories of severe food shortages in Zimbabwe’s prisons yet the correctional services department has got no less than 24 commercial farms dotted around the country?
Zimbabwe is in urgent need of a major overhaul; starting from the very top.
The country’s engine has virtually ceased. The engine is rotten. The piston and rings are finished. The crankshaft is finished. The smoke coming out of the Zimbabwean engine is toxic.
The whole engine has to be taken down and replaced. There is no other way out of this hell hole.
Let’s not exhaust negative energy trying to cure the minor symptoms of the disease. Let’s invoke positive energy and get on to cure the disease itself once and for all failing which all of us shall perish and die!
COMMENTS
Obert, thanks for the info but here lies the problem, when you were in the GNU, Zanu was scorning you left right and centre . Instead of you chaps pointing out these deficiencies to us the voters,you were just hangers on enjoying the gravy train.
Now we are asking for a credible leadership, and you chaps want the status quo to remain.
The MDC is now an extension of Zanu. You party is so compromised its strategy is now to join Zanu. Is it because the leadership want to hold on to the houses and cars that Zanu has deliberately ignore to take back?
Any modern organisation would have new leaders every 10 years and never beyond 15. New blood infused in would learn from the mistakes of the old and progression is achieved.
It is the nature of things . See how degenerated we are because we have kept Mugabe in the post for 34yrs. The MDC is advocating the same.
Shame on you guys.
New LEADERSHIP NOW.
Not more of the same rubbish.
LETS SAVE THE NATION FROM THE ZANU LOOTERS through new ideas from younger ,credible and patriotic leadership.
Pasi nezanu ,MBAHVA.
The real rubbish I see is people who sit in their homes and complain about how the MDC is failing while they do nothing. If you were to question them, they would confirm to you they have not even paid any subscription to the party nor even just purchased the party card to show they are members. They want all for nothing from the MDC. Why can’t people organize themselves and defy government? Not fot the MDC and not for Tsvangirayi, if they are so livid and care for their own welfare. Asking a lot from the MDC and Tsvangirayi is what creates the cult worship of individuals of which Mugabe is an evil example. Get involved in your own freedom! Don’t expect it delivered
It is surprising that you enjoyed riding in a vehicle which has all the fundamental organs almost collapsing without complaints until you reached your destination.You are a dangerous person who risked his life,so why complain now after you kept vital information from us.The only reason you are revealing this its because you have no job to do now and your income is almost zero.
Why should supporters waste their money with these gullible politicians who easily sellout their supporters for a couple of USA dollars?In the early 2000 the masses were convinced that a new leadership had come to liberate them but now they have realized that they supported the wrong people with self interests.Many people tried to advise these guys but they thought were above advice particularly these young guys like Chamisa and company.They would tell you that they know everything-so you pay your party membership if you are naive and still shortsighted without common sense and political wisdom.I will never contribute to these failures until there is a new leadership at the top.
i remember in the 80s Bindura Prison used to supply Maize to other prisons. You could see the Magumete (the name of prison lorry) transporting maize bags to the railway station for loading to other centres, but what do we see now.
well said Mixed Race
I am sorry to say Obert that your own low standards are not the standards required from somebody who seeks leadership. A leader does not look at a salary with avarice. A leader looks at the organisation/country he aspires to lead and puts the good of that organisation as the only priority worth dedicating every ounce of one’s energy to. If the organisation/country is broke you fix that before you consider spoiling yourself! You would never be blind to the fact that these inflated salaries and perks were part and parcel of the underlying cause of the failure therein. Politics has for too long attracted a majority of the wrong characters…..greedy, power hungry and arrogant. Plain useless to any nation.
Comments well-said.
What’s needed are heros. Ordinary people who don’t seek power, fame, or wealth, but are simply fed up with what is, what has been, and what they see for the future. They have lost freedom, and the ability to make a living and have greater expectations for their descendants. Their pride in their nation has melted in the quagmire. Their finances have gone to line the pockets of a few bigwigs, and to pay for the loyalty of party thugs. They aren’t racists, they aren’t tribalists, they’re realists. They aren’t political, they aren’t militaristic, but they are intelligent enough to recognize what has happened, see through the lies, and identify the cause. They’re ordinary people whose dreams have been stolen, and they want them back.
Those are the voices that matter.
“…So, we shouldn’t adopt a holier-than-thou attitude on this issue!…” well said former deputy minister.
However, fact of the matter is there is no rocket science in what u have said. Truth is majority of us know very-very well of the root cause of the mess. That notwithstanding, many of us still say:
1. much as the author of all evil on earth is Lucifer (Satan) himself, let’s rejoice whenever one of his disciples among us is caught & punished:
2. a bully with bruised noise remains a bully no need for us to pretend other wise;
3. wandiya moto wembavha wavembavha – saka mbavha yacho ikakubatisa usingagoni kutiza ndezvako;
4. all criminals & accomplices may be belong to jail – but you deal with whoever of them you manage to catch should others run away or cover their tracks;
5. etc. …
So, the euphoria among us is not so much out of ignorance of what u are telling us. it is more of a result of the above points, among many others. Honest people must not be see to be in the company of the wicked. Should they choose to, then they should not profess any inch of holiness – they should be prepared to pay the price even if the chief architects remain untouchable – so is life. Every lion has its day.
Mr Gutu pls understand this position. Otherwise, it’s naïve, if not mischievious, of u to think majority of Zimboz still need a lecture on how far the Mugabe system has decayed over 34 yrs – chero vamwe vana veChreche vava kutoziva izvozvo. Taura zvimwe. Kana wadziya moto wembavha akasungwa so be it.
But you guys why do you attack MDC leadership as if they are part of zanu pf. MDC during the GNU tried to change so many things but zanu pf were always stopping every effort. Yes MDC was part of the GNU but their hands were tied. YOU guys you are very much aware of that. MDC did a very good job in the GNU. They helped to arrest that galloping inflation and brought food in our empty shops. People were starving before GNU