The story about Manicaland Provincial Affairs minister Mandi Chimene reportedly hiring a traditional healer to cast a spell on her War Veterans counterpart, Tshinga Dube made for light-hearted reading, but on a more serious note, it reveals the extent of the mess Zimbabwe is in.
Source: A country cannot be run on superstition – NewsDay Zimbabwe November 16, 2016
Comment: NewsDay Editor
This comes only a few days after the release of a video of State Security minister Kembo Mohadi attending a sermon, where he was told two men plotted to kill him by grabbing the sand on which he would have stood on.
President Robert Mugabe has also made fantastical claims that his former deputy, Joice Mujuru plotted to kill him using tadpoles and all sorts of paraphernalia, so she could succeed him.
All this points to Zimbabwe being led by a superstitious lot, who are going to look for all sorts of scapegoats for their failure to run this country.
This is the reason why this government can, en masse, believe that pure diesel can ooze out from a rock, without deploying any logic or critical thinking.
We have heard the government say the economy will improve this year or next year and each time it has only gotten worse and we have wondered what the basis of their projections is, but it is now all too evident that they could basing this on some whimsical claims of traditional healers.
We will not be disdainful of anyone’s religion and beliefs, but a country cannot be run on superstition, which goes against the laws of nature, science and economics.
We cannot expect this government to do anything for this country when they are so obsessed with issues of the spiritual realm and it is time we urged pragmatism.
No traditional healer, prophet or sangoma is going to improve the country’s economy or governance issues and the sooner the government realises that, the better.
If these sangomas were any powerful, then Zimbabwe will be among the most powerful nations in the world, but they are not, and we find ourselves at the bottom of the pyramid.
The only way the country can get to the proverbial promised land is by accepting realism and dumping all forms of superstition, which are honestly embarrassing and call into question the calibre of leaders we have in the country.
We will not wade into a debate on witchcraft and religion, but at this stage the government must be run on pragmatism and once the country is out of the woods, the ministers can revert to their beliefs in the supernatural and we will not begrudge them.
As it is, we look like a primitive and backward people, who can believe that diesel flows out of a rock and, without a hint of irony, we still pride ourselves as having the best literacy in Africa.
COMMENTS
We ARE a primitive and backward people, and the problem is not superstition – it’s stupidity. Besides that, the claim to high literacy is 30 years out of date.
Recall not so long ago, senior members of the PARTY and Government were ordered to present themselves at “the Rock diesel fields” around Chinhoyi!! Wasn’t it superstition upheld by the NATION’s centre of Power?
I have in my archives a photo of the Guys taking in snuff as per instruction also shoeless!!!!!!
JOKES or Comical comedies in this country are plenty.
The issue is even bigger than just government operatives and witch doctors. the thousands that flock to prophets for healing and prosperity are equally stupid, so are the many that congregate under trees and put on white robes to mimic biblical Jews of old. The government draws its operatives and strength from such nincompoops and its decisions can only be as foolish. These imbeciles vote and the results are just like in the US with Trump or Germany in 1933 with Hitler. Meanwhile the reasonable people shy away from positive action and positions of authority – we deserve what we get folks. If lions allow themselves to be led by dogs, they will die like dogs. The lions need to roar, complaining that dogs are barking will not change anything. it is in the nature of dogs to eat vomit, they will do so unless chased away. It is not reform we need, it is an overhaul.