African people have always celebrated the abundance of life. We do not believe that the worth of our elderly expires even after they die. To that end, Africans abhor sending their elderly relatives to old people’s homes.
Thus, under normal circumstances, living to “a ripe old age” would be cause for celebration because it is an indication of not only the presence of life but the existence of history and the availability of a family’s personal encyclopedia of life.
In Zimbabwe’s case, it appears to be the opposite.
Robert Mugabe turned 90 last week and he celebrated despite causing so much misery, ruling violence, killing people and destroying the nation.
For me, it is difficult to tell on whose side the gods are; it is a harassing thought of why good things happen to bad people while the good die you.
When Mugabe speaks about the war of liberation, one would think he, himself, did a wonderful job.
The brave ones died to liberate people like Mugabe himself. What we see today is not what the people died for during the war of liberation.
Every day, we witness something ZANU-PF does against the people. They are so self-centered that the deaths of people no longer bother them.
They cause deaths of innocent people and say they are protecting the nation from its own people.
Nothing confirms Mugabe’s insensitivity than the amount of money used to celebrate his birthday last week at a time the nation is in financial distress and at the very moment when the nation has some of its citizens stranded in makeshift camps after a devastating flooding in the southern part of Zimbabwe.
It is being referred to as the Tokwe-Mukosi disaster.
As reporter Phyllis Mbanje of the (Zimbabwe) Standard aptly observed, losing a home, along with a lifetime’s collection of belongings, robs an individual of their self-esteem and sense of worth.
Apart from pooling national resources and being with the disaster victims, a normal president would have been with the people, comforting them and giving them hope while instilling a sense of belonging.
After declaring the flooding a national disaster, Mugabe flew to Singapore because he had a speck of dust in his eye.
How do ZANU-PF adherents themselves feel at such show of selfishness?
While thousands of displaced Tokwe-Mukosi villagers huddle at a Zimbabwe Red Cross Society transit camp in Masvingo Province, Mugabe and his thieving autocrats staged an insulting million dollar birthday celebration for a man who permanently extinguished birthdays for thousands of Zimbabweans.
Even if we were to believe the nonsense that no taxpayers’ money was used and that ZANU-PF party faithful raised the money, it still boggles the mind as to why they prefer to fundraise for a useless birthday party and not send a cent to the flood victims elsewhere in the nation.
Is that not appalling enough? Is that not evidence that Zimbabwe is being run by organized criminals? Where is our sense of purpose when we decide that a birthday party is more important than assisting our compatriots ravaged by the floods?
During these celebrations, at which Mugabe sliced a 90kg cake, former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono gave Mugabe 89 head of cattle instead of giving even just ten cattle to the flood victims marooned at a transit camp in the forests of Masvingo.
There are children and elderly people there, for goodness sake.
If evidence is ever needed that Mugabe is an evil demon, we cannot ask for more. And the little greedy devils like Gono are already sprouting tails and horns as well.
How can anyone in their right mind celebrate anything at this time in Zimbabwe?
Mugabe himself goes to the British to ask for money to pay fees for poor primary school students while he squanders money on birthdays and endless trips to Singapore. As if he will ever get well. Even if he were to get well, so what?
On Wednesday, the British gave Mugabe a $10 million grant to bail out the stranded primary school kids. This, my dear friends, is African nationalism.
As Mugabe was preparing to celebrate his multi-million dollar birthday last week, his government announced fee hikes for students at the University of Zimbabwe.
The fee hike per semester now sees parents earning less than what their children need at school.
This at a time when all our parastatals are wobbly and are in the red.
These are the same people who say they fought for dignity, freedom and independence yet they stripped us of all dignity; we are still not free and we are not independent.
What Mugabe and his thieves have excelled in is theft, murder and corruption.
And they claim they liberated the nation? This is nationalism?
When will the abuse and rape of the nation end?
Aren’t these people ashamed at all, wining and dining while people are dying around them? What kind of animal is this president who treats the country as if it were his own tuck-shop?
It is painful for us to watch people who used us to free this country mercilessly riding on our backs while subjecting us to the worst living standards imaginable because these people decided to be corrupt enough to steal from their own people.
I agree that corruption destroys the economic and administrative backbone of a nation.
“The politicians, the bureaucrats and the criminals gain at the cost of the common man…the people remain poverty stricken…”
Corruption leads to economic stagnation and both the people and the nation suffer.
Corruption creates poverty and the people suffer; corruption hinders the nation’s growth.
But ZANU-PF “stalwarts” do not care about all this. They want more and they are taking more than they need. That is the unfortunate thing about greed; you just amass what is not yours while the next person starves to death.
With corruption, the poor stand no chance of improving their lives and yet a government is in existence to improve the people’s lot.
The state of affairs in our country cannot be allowed to continue.
We have killed three generations already and ZANU-PF does not care. Such crimes will not rot; someone is going to pay.
The heart of the matter is that time will come when Mugabe and his people will answer for all they are doing to the people, to the nation and to the country.
ZANU-PF’s evil is unequaled.
I cannot understand how such a large group of literate men and women can stoop so low as to cause the demise of fellow Zimbabweans while actively destroying our nation.
How can they ignore victims of disaster and fail to provide school fees for the nation’s children while they bake 90kg cakes to celebrate murder and thievery?
How can they not feel for the dying children, starved by their party, or the elderly, driven from their homes by their youths?
A leader who wines and dines while his people are suffering and dying is no leader. We will get even soon enough.
That is not a threat; it is a promise.
