By Davet Muzvidziwa

EVEN if you are the only one right and everyone is wrong, the right thing to do is to remain right. Remaining right allows others to see that they were wrong in their multitude.
Zimbabweans as a nation and as individuals should seek to be right in their deeds and conscience as the phase of development we are entering requires right minded nation and individuals. Only when the will to be right is stronger than the will to be wrong will we begin to see Zimbabwe moving forward in a meaningful manner.
The current state where the propensity to be wrong outshines the desire to be right is untenable and counterproductive to the wellbeing of our beautiful Zimbabwe.
Out of the need to survive, Zimbabweans did many things in the hyper inflation era that ended in 2009. Many things happened during this era, some of which were criminal, illegal, inhuman, and cruel and in some cases abominable.
That is understood in the context that there was dire need to survive the hyper inflation induced by the Western sanctions.
That period came to pass and is safely stored in the annals of history. Now there is food on the shelves, some Zimbabweans can afford to buy cars and Zimbabwean roads are congested. If you go to entertainment hotspots you can see revellers enjoying themselves.
Children are going to school and young couples are wedding. Things are normal to a certain extent now. Zimbabweans in their various religions are known to be God fearing.
Mwari religion, Christianity, Islam and other religions present in Zimbabwe concur in the differentiation of right from wrong. While life has returned to normal, some of the vices developed or exaggerated and justified under the hyper inflationary environment have persisted long after the period ended. Corruption was rife at all levels. In a queue to buy bread there was corruption. In a bank to withdraw your money, there was corruption.
There was corruption everywhere for you to get what you wanted. One would have thought that Zimbabweans would uphold their key trait, that of being desirous to be right and to right things.
One would expect that Zimbabweans would then shun corruption after the collapse of the hyper inflationary period. But wherever you go today, you hear people openly solicit bribes.
You hear statements such as “hautengi coke iwe”, “Maoko ari kuvava” and so forth suggesting that you must do something in order to get a legitimate service. Corruption is wrong and evil. Zimbabweans must exorcise themselves of this corruption demon.
Corruption if unchecked will contaminate the entire fabric of our society and Zimbabweans should seek to be remaining right.
In churches pastors preach righteousness every day.
They quote sacred texts of their religions in order to bring God in the fight against wrong doing. Alas, the very pastors who preach the gospel of righteousness are them found on the wrong side. They take other people’s wives and husbands.
They are brought to courts charged of theft. Lawyers who are supposed to protect the public are charged for stealing trust funds. Managers of companies who are supposed to bring Zimbabwe out of its economic meltdown are themselves accused of under-invoicing exports and overcharging imports, all with a malicious intend to bleed the country.
The balance of payment of the country remains in the red and the deficit continues to balloon out of proportion.
Zimbabwe without looking beyond our borders have everything we need to turn around our fortunes.
We have the best human capital in Africa and most of the world. We have the richest mineral deposits per capita.
Our agricultural climate is second to none. Why then do we have to look East or West in search for solutions to our challenges?
The President of Zimbabwe enabled us in all ways possible. First it was education and health and the results speak for themselves.
Then the land reform and the results speak again for themselves. Small -scale tobacco production is testimony to the enablement.
Then come the indigenisation of the economy. Because of lack of desire to be right, the President has to go to China for solutions to our lack of resolve to be right.
If for a moment, we could abandon corruption, graft, and other vices and chose to be right, Chinese and Nigerians will not find space to open kiosks in this country.
In the history of this country, the resolve to be right was strong that milestones have been established. In the First Chimurenga Mbuya Nehanda refused to abandon the revolution no matter what the cost was. Faced with death, she chose to be right. She left a footprint for the continuation of the liberation struggle.
Almost all nationalist leaders were incarcerated by the Smith regime for periods of up to ten years. In this inhuman treatment they chose to be right no matter what. They said the struggle was to continue even if they were to perish in prisons.
The freedom fighters chose to be right by waging a people’s war. They sacrificed all the enjoyments and chose to die freeing people from colonial bondage.
This desire to be right was so strong that everything else had to fit in the right template as pronounced by the three points of attention and eight points of discipline.
Zimbabwe cannot go forward if corruption is endemic in all spheres of the economy. Zimbabwe cannot go forward if the civil servants cannot have a decent remuneration. Zimbabwe cannot go forward if officials will ask from investors some palm greasing in order to be allowed to invest in the country.
Zimbabwe will not go forward if the investment climate both for locals and foreigners is not rationalised. All Zimbabweans should begin to seek to be right in all our endeavours if our efforts are going to be meaningful to our beautiful country.
Zimbabweans are bleeding their economy, Zimbabweans are relocating their businesses, Zimbabweans are cheating, under-invoicing and Zimbabweans are smuggling gold and other minerals out of the country.
If only Zimbabweans would discard wrong doing replacing it with doing things right, our country would soon be an economic giant of the world. There are no short cuts, we have to endure in order to enjoy. All we have to do is to remain right.