Zimbabweans, as individuals, must invest in change

via Zimbabweans, as individuals, must invest in change | SW Radio Africa by Tanonoka Joseph Whande Monday 21 October 2013

Zimbabwe’s elections have faded into the far distance. It is now time for those elected to perform and to expend of the duties expected of them.

I honestly ache to believe that our Members of Parliament are aware of the importance of their imperatives, particularly that Parliament, along with the Executive and the Judiciary, is one third of the trinity that forms the three pillars of our government.

Their responsibilities can really never be over-emphasized. All of them must understand that not only are they responsible for mapping the right path for the nation but also that their role determines Zimbabwe’s respect and position among the community of nations worldwide.

Yes, our nation expects the best out of them all.

The Executive.

The Legislature.

The Judiciary.

For proper balance, such as we appreciate on a three-legged pot, each part needs the other two to stand. These three have no choice but to work together for national benefit.

But I am a very subdued man because these three, which should be born out of a process in which people and accepted procedures are followed, seem to have come through some other means.

The Executive is heavily tainted because there are legitimate concerns as to how Robert Mugabe ended up winning the presidency in several elections but particularly the last one in July.

In his 34 years in power, Mugabe has shown that he is concerned about himself and a party that lets him have his way with the nation.

He has, time and again, shown his vindictiveness against fellow citizens, opposition party members whom he views as enemies.

Mugabe has had enough time to show that he is far from being patriotic but is a self-cantered egoistical dictator who gives not a hoot about the nation and its people.

He is president only to those who worship and adore him. He rewards those who blasphemously view him as a son of God in spite of the thousands of skeletons he littered across the country.

On the other hand, it is feared, and with good reason, that the Judiciary is filled by clowns handpicked by Mugabe without the full participation and recommendation of the legal society as should be the case.

In the end, it is generally accepted that the Judiciary was picked not necessarily for their professional acumen but rather for their allegiance to Mugabe and his party.

Serious-minded legal professionals were pushed and haunted out of their robes in favour of those who put Mugabe and ZANU-PF above the law.

In all honesty, our Judiciary is a joke…filled with legal clowns whose comedic exploits on the bench no circus can ever re-produce.

Time and time again, our citizens put their faith and trust in their hands as they seek fairness only for decisions to be made based on political affiliation.

So many times we have seen complainants being themselves arrested because they were suspected of belonging to other political parties outside ZANU-PF.

Their behaviour on the bench mocks the court system and they wouldn’t care less.

They were not hand-picked to be fair and unbiased.

Meanwhile in Parliament, our elected officials are hardly recognisable as the true representative of the people.

Parliament is hostile to the people.

If not thinking of themselves fighting to acquire top of the range vehicles, stands and cellphones, they are busy playing party politics, singing bootlickers’ songs at the expense of setting national agenda and policy.

Parliament is filled with blind followers of short-sighted party leaders who believe that allegiance to themselves is more important than serving the people.

There are no civil servants in our Executive, judiciary and parliament; they are all self-cantered, egoistical, greedy and under-performing dimwits who do not give a damn about Zimbabwe but adore Mugabe, Tsvangirai, ZANU-PF and the MDC but think little of the nation.

Their priorities are wrong, totally wrong and for that we, the people, will suffer till we lose consciousness.

Zimbabweans do not have anyone to turn to.

A president’s stepson and his mother grab mines when ministers appointed by Mugabe himself are busy trying to convince investors to invest in our country.

Thugs masquerading as war veterans invade a conservancy, killing our animals and destroying our tourism while ministers appointed by Mugabe himself are trying to promote our country as a tourist destination and while trying to conserve our flora and fauna.

We cannot turn to our president; he competes with fake war veterans to steal from the nation.

We cannot turn to our justices of the courts, they are too busy at farms they did not buy and shout ZANU-PF political slogans in their line of duty.

We cannot turn to our Members of Parliament, they have turned Parliament into a song contest gallery and are too busy demanding laptops and diplomatic passports from us.

Our police consider us enemies who have to be abused for seeking protection from them.

Our military exists to harass us and chase us away from our homes if we dare to raise a divergent voice.

We are a persecuted people. Persecuted by our own government, our own protectors.

And parliament sees it and says nothing, while the police look the other way.

Our judges must awaken to the fact that they are to dispense of justice and protect the weak from the bullies. They have a role to impose equality.

Our police and army must serve the people and not abuse them.

My point is that we cannot seek life from a murderer.

We cannot seek peace from a warmonger.

We cannot seek protection from an abuser.

As for Mugabe, he is beyond redemption and knows that if he so much as dares to leave State House, he will live either in jail or in a grave. He is using Zimbabwe as a shield against reprisals over the murders he committed.

Given the continuing, deplorable situation and the length of time it has run and given the lack of concern from those who ought to be protecting the people but are not, the heart of the matter is that Zimbabweans, as individuals, must dedicate themselves to bringing about change.

My point is that we cannot afford to continue putting our trust in political parties that we are not allowed to control, nor should we continue to extol party leaders who work against our interests.

Parliamentarians, as individuals, must understand their roles and serve the nation.

Change must come from the individual otherwise ours is going to be a perpetual existence in futility yet we can seize the initiative on our own.

ZANU-PF continues to steal from citizens.

The MDC, fresh from a drubbing at the polls, is gearing up to contest in yet another parliamentary by-election as if the complaints they raise daily about the proper holding of elections have been resolved.

What more evidence do we need that our political parties are infested by morons who have no idea about what the people want; half-baked legislators who do not know what to do even when they are told?

The change we so much cry for must come from us as individuals and we have more than 12 million individuals in Zimbabwe.

I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande and that, my fellow Zimbabweans, is the way it is today, Monday, October 21, 2013.

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