Zimbabwe overburdened by wrong priorities – Tanonoka Joseph Whande

via Zimbabwe overburdened by wrong priorities by Tanonoka Joseph Whande | SW Radio Africa on Monday, February 10, 2014 

In normal situations around the world and, of course, outside Africa, all the people implicated in the salaries fiasco would have long been ejected from their jobs and charged.

Jonathan Moyo said that it was not illegal that these people awarded themselves hefty salaries and bonuses but he forgot whose money it was.

The taxpayers do not think so because it’s not Moyo’s money; it is the taxpayers’ money and every cent has to be accounted for.

But this kind of rot is expected from the likes of Moyo who take people as of no consequence and who believe money in government coffers belongs to them and not to the people.

We see it every day.

How much is it costing the people of Zimbabwe to fight a court battle to recover a house in Hong Kong, bought without the people’s knowledge and now using taxpayers’ money for these issues emanating from stolen monies?

This attitude that the few cents contributed by a lone citizen to the nation through taxation is their money is what Mugabe has always thought and is what his so-called ministers are doing.

We have a whole bunch of people in just about every parastatal who awarded themselves hefty paychecks, bonuses and other perks but we, the people, cannot touch them for taking money that is not theirs while running into the ground those entities meant to serve the people.

Mugabe’s sister passed away in hospital a few weeks ago after several years in a coma.

And, cruel as it might be, people were talking about how this could be afforded and who, really, was paying for it, considering that so-called ordinary people were lucky to be admitted into any hospital, let alone get the required care, medication and attention.

Mugabe uses public funds as if it is his personal money, as if it belongs to him.

We are well aware of the costs of his travels on personal business. We see how he has always spent more than he earns.

And, today, money from those few struggling taxpayers and weak companies is being diverted to take care of a family at the expense of the people.

The people of Zimbabwe are today being burdened with financial fights to recover a house, bought with stolen money and owned by the Mugabe family.

This stinks to high heavens. Africa has a notorious record of people enslaving themselves after colonialists had been driven out of power.

The cruelest thing Mugabe is doing is to use the people’s resources, the nation’s wealth and energy to abuse the very owners of that country and the people’s wealth against them.

There is that famed Biblical anecdote prohibiting the use of a mother goat’s milk to cook its very own kid. And our Robert is doing just that.

What a heartless old goat!

Mugabe has always been a selfish and self-centered leader who never accepted other people’s views. He is so bent on being an omnipotent that his rusty mind does not seem to register to him his own mortality.

I dislike the notion that Zimbabweans are beholden to Mugabe because he has destroyed our country more than he has improved it.

It is appalling that in the aftermath of revelations of abuse of office and public funds, he protects his underlings by having them keep their jobs or having them reinstated after being dismissed.

All the people who head parastatals are approved by Mugabe in his endless voyages of using public funds and office to pay personal debts and reward praise singers.

What does it take for these people to be responsible enough to be able to distinguish between personal and public property? They all behave as if we owe them something yet they owe the nation honest service, which they have always failed to deliver.

Mugabe never cared about the people or the nation. His mission was to please himself, comparing himself to Christ and wanting people to view him as a redeemer. Well, he is a murderer and the ghosts of those he murdered will give him no peace.

A selfish man, Mugabe has always put himself before the nation he was supposed to serve, which is a shame if we consider the number of people who perished in liberating Zimbabwe.

During the funeral of his sister a few weeks ago, Mugabe was quoted as saying that his sister Bridget’s situation made him introduce the Ministry on Psychomotor Activities which he gave to Josaya Hungwe.

Mugabe created a ministry because his own sister needed such services?

Psychomotor activity or learning is described as ‘the relationship between cognitive functions and physical movement’.

“Psychomotor learning is demonstrated by physical skills such as movement, coordination, manipulation, dexterity, grace, strength, speed; actions which demonstrate the fine motor skills such as use of precision instruments or tools, or actions which evidence gross motor skills such as the use of the body in dance, musical or athletic performance.”

In the end, all the definitions mean pretty much the same thing: movement that is related to the mind. In our history and, indeed, in the history of all nations, there has always been and are children and grown-ups in and out of schools who needed such attention but Mugabe did not care about them until July 2013 when, after stealing an election, he created such a ministry because such service was needed in his own household.

At his appointment to the ministry, which should have been a department in the Education Ministry, Hungwe was himself not even sure of what he was supposed to be doing.

Last September 30th in Parliament, Higher Education Minister Olivia Muchena was challenged to explain the relevance of the Psychomotor Ministry and she fumbled around for a plausible justification without success.

“I would like to ask the indulgence of the house for me and my colleague to bring a joint statement after we are fully briefed,” Muchena said. “Normally, people learn in the mind and not able to do it. What is meant by psychomotor is that there should be engagement between the mind and how to do it.”

All Mugabe needed to do was to ask the teachers who are with these children more hours than us parents. They would not have recommended a separate ministry; they would have done it themselves because they are the ones who know the strengths and weaknesses of our children better than we do. They are in day to day contact with the affected children.

The money used to establish such a worthless ministry should have been channeled into the wages of our long suffering but patient teachers and into creating a strong department within the education ministry.

For some reason, Mugabe has always underestimated our teachers. He views them with some hatred. Teachers deserve more respect, especially from Mugabe, himself an undistinguished school teacher (do not listen to the nonsense about law and economics degrees).

To be fair to Hungwe, he is on record in parliament stating that he did not know what actually his ministry’s mandate was. Now he knows. Mugabe created a ministry for his own sister.

The heart of the matter is that Mugabe and his government do not view the over-indulgence of officials from parastatals as anything serious. This is a scandal in every respect and we can see a common method of indulgence among all parastatal heads and officials as if it was expected of them to do what they did.

Mugabe wastes people’s money while the people are suffering.

I believe he wants Zimbabweans to thank him for creating and introducing a ministry in our government…a ministry born out of his personal experiences.

But now Mugabe has “assigned functions to all his ministers except the Ministry of State for Liaising on Psychomotor Activities in Education and Vocational Training”.

I hope this is not because the person who inspired Mugabe to create this ministry has passed on.

Mugabe spends so freely because it is not his money. His priorities have always been wrong. After 34 years as leader, he still runs the nation a trial and error basis.

I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande and that, my fellow Zimbabweans, is the way it is today, Monday, February 10th, 2014.

COMMENTS

WORDPRESS: 17
  • comment-avatar

    A few weeks ago, in fact a few months ago I told you a lot would be revealed.A lot is happening. Not that I Hutu had good predications. I told you that we are right in there . Yes we are. We need you people, Mixed race, Falenz, Bee,Avenger,EVEN THE BIG WHITE MONKEY who’s dogs eat better than Zimbabweans,that’s what he said? Where are you Rabbit?

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    dhlomo 11 years ago

    Zimbabwe situation, as a fresh news source died the day its old administrator retired. this cite is now so boring that of all its headlines, only one columnist installment is the only item not from the previous day stories. the rest is stale news.

    • comment-avatar
      MikeH 11 years ago

      Well you know what you can do, assuming you can see the door. Lock up on your way out.

  • comment-avatar
    John Thomas 11 years ago

    Where to begin. The question in the headline is long ago answered. The priorities are wrong if you are an honest citizen. On the other hand if you are a ZANU thief they are just right.

    So long as the a abusers retain the upper hand things will remain as they are. Our only hope right now, and it is a small hope, is that the system will collapse under the weight of its own inefficiency

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    Sekuru Mapenga 11 years ago

    When you pay your commuter minibus fare, half of what you pay is used to bribe the police at roadblocks, and half is used for the costs of the journey. If the police did not extort money from kombis at the roadblocks, the fares would be half. This is one of the many ways that Mugabe takes money from the poor every day to pay the police to keep him in power.

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    ephraim 11 years ago

    Whenever Mugabe gets the opportunity to address people be it a funeral or a heads of states gathering he blames the country,s problems on sanctions. Now that the root cause which is greed, corruption and misguided priorities are now in the public domain for all to see. What is our dear President going to say now he has not said a word and Mai Mujuru threatned the media to stop publishing these corrupt activities even Tafataona Mahoso has not said a word in his publications had it been an MDC T member the media would have been encouraged to publish more. The silence of our leaders is a sign that they are busy covering their tracks or they want this graft issue to die a silent death since no action has been taken by government

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    Charles Chamunorwa 11 years ago

    Next, we are going to have a ministry for Bona, Robert Jnr, Chatunga, Grace,Chinotimba. Huya uone Zimbabwe Part 2

  • comment-avatar

    Well Tan, it is today,yesterday and many more memories, again and again.Now, if it continues,more and more, are you enjoying your passivity, or perhaps you may be a wily wolf,listening to others that will attempt a strong resistance and reporting to the top, so you might have, higher salaries and this country, continues !

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    Mthwakazi 11 years ago

    Shonas voted for him enmasse in 1980, despite your words quoted verbatim below.

    “Mugabe has always been a selfish and self-centered leader who never accepted other people’s views.”

    • comment-avatar
      maita 11 years ago

      Mthwakazi ZanuPf swept the whole of Ndebeleland on July 31. Anyway Zimbabweans ululate at all this and I am not surprised, is it we are too pliant. We made this bed let us sleep on it.

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        Mthwakazi 11 years ago

        maita
        Today’s so-called elections are an after-the-fact. They are irrelevant and not an issue because they are questionable, as they are being organised by the same gukurahundi election thieves. We dont believe the results.

        The elections that matter – the watershed elections that brought us to where we are today as Zimbabwe are the 1980 elections. These were organised by Lord Soames and company.

        These are the elections in which Shonas should not have abused their majority – voting on tribal lines enmasse and giving gukurahundis an unassailable majority that enabled them to do as they pleased. It enabled them to militarise the state and today we canot reverse this unless we take up arms.

        We are today in all this shiit because of the 1980s elections!!

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    Mthwakazi 11 years ago

    In South Africa, numerous investigations are carried out around President Jacob Zuma’s financial affairs. Upgrades on his Nkandla homestead are currently the subject of the Public Protector’s investigations.

    In Zimbabwe, nobody says anything when gukurhundi Mugabe spends money on private trips to his daughter’s graduation in Hong Kong.

    We are told the Zimbabwe government is fighting a Chinese business man over the ownership of a Hong Kong apartment – is this apartment for the government or for the gukurahundi family?

    If its for the gukurahundi family, why are Zimbabweans NOT querying the involvement of government in this legal battle?

    Corruption in Gukurahundiland will never be solved because Gukurahundi Mugabe himself is corruption personified. State resources are like his personal resources and nobody calls him to account.

    This is one of the reasons he will never step down. He uses state resources for personal junkets. His family is still young and his salary cannot afford to sustain the luxurious life they have been accustomed to.

    • comment-avatar
      maita 11 years ago

      Actually our President lied in that interview when he said he did not need a home in a foreign land now its out he is fighting over a home he said he was renting. Seriously renting such a big house for a student shows how we play with people’s minds. Endai kumamisha kune vanopururudza vakadzi huori hunountaurwa nevanoda kupwanya zanupf vanogara mutumba twe huswa but to renda a 30 roomed apartment for a student. Saka moti ndiye munhu acharwisa corruption iyeyu?

    • comment-avatar

      Mthakwazi I like this part of yo contribution “why are Zimbabweans NOT querying the involvement of government in this legal battle?”. Are u also not a Zim and what have u done except commenting here and most of e time diverting attention. I hope ua not a cio in disguise cos we shd all close ranks and fyt this monster cos divided we fall

      • comment-avatar
        Mthwakazi 11 years ago

        Abbu
        What you call “diverting attention” is actually about drawing your attention to some of the long standing causes of the current mess, which most of you prefer to ignore out of a guilt conscience.

        That some of these causes happened long back in the 1980s does not matter – they still are the causes nevertheless.They are very much relevant to our present circumstances.

        When you try solving a problem, you dont pick and choose only those issues that you are most comfortable with. Nobody with a right thinking mind can just attribute gukurahundi ZANU PF’s billigerant attitude and dictatorial style of governance to the 1990s after the formation of the MDC, as if their way of doing things is new and only started then. You will not solve Zim’s problems that way.

        You have to acknowledge that, yes we, mostly the Shona were highly excited with independence and we dropped the ball; that we ignored the fundamental warning signs in the way ZANU PF dealt with its opponents, particularly PF ZAPU and its supporters.

        We need a relook into this and make sure we deal with these pertinent issues in any party that seeks a mandate to govern from us in future going forward.

        But because most of you still refuse to cast your eyes back into our short history to draw lessons therefrom, you are now repeating thes same errors of judgement in you fanatical support for Morgan Tsvangirayi and his MDC-T.

        In this fight for democracy, your attitudes towards other parties and leaders, particularly those led by Mthwakazi leaders has not changed. But still you expect different results – this the definition of INSANITY – according Albert Einstein!!

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    Saddened 11 years ago

    I want to encourage God fearing Christians to read 2 Kings Chapter 7 about the siege being lifted & be encouraged to do something about our situation. I believe that aptly describes us as ‘people waiting to die’ whatever we do or don’t do. So lets act before we die anyway. Remember the scripture is about about lepers who weren’t allowed within the city walls.