Leaders set the culture for whatever groups they lead and that group cannot develop beyond the vision of its leadership. If the head is rotten the rest of the body will be rotten as well. In the case of Zimbabwe it's a sad but true fact that nothing is going to improve as long as the current leadership in all branches of government continues to lead. The corruption in government is so deep set and has cascaded from the head of its leadership to the people with minor positions in the government, to the point of becoming normal that no one even bats an eyelash when they come across it. The only way that a change can come in this kind of system is to have a complete overhaul of all the systems in government and start afresh building from the top to the bottom.
Over the past few weeks I have been horrified at the blatant disregard of the constitution by members of the Zimbabwean parliament as they openly opposed the core values of what the constitution stands for. This behaviour has gone unchecked and is completely unacceptable for people who hold such public seats in office. Martin Dinha who is the Mashonaland Central Provincial Affairs Minister was quoted saying that the 1970's liberation war veterans who oppose President Mugabe should be captured, stripped and taken to the army barracks where they would be beaten as punishment. When he was later asked about this by the media he said these comments were made in jest. Why would someone in authority joke about people being beaten and think that this is funny when ordinary citizens are being arrested for doing less? When Mr Dinha was elected in power he swore to uphold the constitution of the country and for him to joke about perpetrating violence towards its citizenry clearly shows his contempt at everything that the constitution stands for when it comes to the ordinary Zimbabwean people.
Shuvai Mahofa who is the provincial Affairs Minister has also gone on record saying that only Zanu PF supporters will be favoured in contract awarding for the construction of the Harare-Beitbridge Highway.
"Recruitment of general labourers should be done through the local Zanu PF leadership, we need to screen and take our people only."
"District chairpersons should have a list of party cadres so that when the program starts, you are ready with the names of our youths."
"This is what we agreed at the leadership of the province.''
The construction of this road is estimated to take up to 3 years and will create about 330 000 casual jobs. The government is supposed to be impartial and provide equal job opportunities for its citizens but they are using their strength to indirectly force people to become members of their party. People are hungry and desperate for jobs and the government is manipulating this vulnerability in order to garner more support for their party in the lead up to the 2018 elections.
This is not the first time that the government has manipulated people into supporting them and it seems to be a trend that they have adopted leading up to major elections. This continues to happen because we the people continue to allow it. For many years I, like a lot of people had my head in the sand and pretended that everything was alright as long as I managed to look after myself. This kind of attitude is what has kept this Zanu PF ruling party in power and will continue to keep them in power as long as we the Zimbabwean people continue to watch as they treat the country's possessions as their own personal property. We the people can bring about a positive change in Zimbabwe by using our God given talents, be it our voices to say 'enough is enough', our legal knowledge on how this ruling Zanu PF party can be stopped or just being the person who agrees to stand up and be counted as standing up for the rights of the Zimbabwean people and opposing the atrocities that are being committed by the government...the buck starts with us.
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