Blame game at center of Zimbabwe’s problems

via Blame game at center of Zimbabwe’s problems | SW Radio Africa by Mthulisi Mathuthu on Wednesday, May 14, 2014

As Zimbabwe slides further into uncertainty a senior journalist has blamed the country’s problems on what he terms the ‘enemy-centered approach.’

NewsDay Chief Sub-Editor Kamurai Mudzingwa told SW Radio Africa’s Cutting Edge programme that the culture of blaming other people for the country’s failures is deeply entrenched and will take time to eradicate. He said so entrenched is the blame game syndrome that Zimbabwe has over the last 34 years become an ‘enemy centered nation.’

Mudzingwa blasted the tendency by the ZANU PF government to blame the West for all the country’s problems. He said it was time for Zimbabweans to ‘own up’ to their failures and stop blaming colonialism, because almost all nations were once colonized but many have since picked themselves up and moved on.

He said corruption and the lack of will to implement political and economic reforms were some of the issues which ‘we cannot blame on anyone but ourselves.’

Mudzingwa warned that it is naive to just hope that the problem will end with President Mugabe’s retirement because it has been around for more than three decades. He said: ‘The tendency to see Mugabe alone as the main problem is itself part of this enemy centered mentality which I am against. Mugabe operates within a system and decisions are taken at politburo level so just his ouster or retirement alone cannot guarantee any immediate change.’

The veteran journalist said the ongoing internal squabbles within the MDC-T show that the opposition has not been spared by the ‘enemy centered approach’ to politics either. He said: ‘The opposition tends to blame ZANU PF for everything just like ZANU PF will blame the opposition and the West for everything. So you can see it’s a deep sited problem.’

Mudzingwa’s comments come after MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai blamed recent attempts to oust him by a faction led by Secretary General Tendai Biti, on ZANU PF and other enemies.

However Mudzingwa said while the problem of blaming other people could be around even beyond Mugabe there was ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ because even some ZANU PF people privately admit to the need for change.