HomeFeatureTreasonous sabotage ...supermarkets should rein in their managers

Treasonous sabotage …supermarkets should rein in their managers

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By Solomon Mujakachi

THIS writer comes to you, Zimbabweans, with a heavy heart — a bleeding heart.

COVID-19 is a pandemic visited upon us for whatever reason(s), but that is neither here nor there now.

For reasons best to do with our collective good health, our  leadership saw it fit to institute a lockdown — this is not peculiar to Zimbabwe alone, but the world over.

These are difficult times  for individuals, families, communities, indeed the whole world. 

In Zimbabwe, we have been fortunate, so far, in that this grim reaper has not wrought the worst.

Other nations have suffered worse; Italy, Spain, China, the US and the UK, to mention but a few.

Like one of our previous publications cautioned: This is not the time to play it smart; it’s the time to play it safe in the sure hope that, collectively, as a nation, we can prevail over this plague.

Together we can!

However, there are some among us ghoulish and morbid enough to see an opportunity to profiteer.

Where the country’s leadership and, indeed, the whole nation, are answering to the international clarion call to arrest this scourge, the lumpen among us are stealing the cement and dynamiting the bridges, so to speak.

But for what?

This scourge has no colour, creed, religion, social standing nor borders.

It is indeed the grim reaper!

Where the President, H.E. Emmerson Mnangagwa, has called for those in essential services to be enabled to perform their duties, others are spending sleepless nights devising ways to beat the system to the extent of forging work-related documents to pass through roadblocks.

To what end?

Where the President has called upon the food-related industry to open for business so that people do not starve, others have seen an opportunity to steal, yes, it is stealing those basic essentials and diverting them to the black market.

We have seen cases where basics like mealie-meal, cooking oil and washing powder, among a lot more, are delivered to supermarkets, which we shall not mention here, with the assurance these goods would be on the shelves the following day.

But lo and behold, these goods would be sold out by the time you get to that particular shop, no matter how early you wake up!

Miracle, no; voodoo, yes!

And I bet there won’t be any counter or till sales to prove these goods were ever sold.

So, how do the goods disappear?

Simple!

Dear reader, at this stage I beg you to indulge this scribe:

λ goods are delivered to a supermarket, usually at the end of the day

λ workers at that particular supermarket are told by their bosses the goods would be sold the following day.

λ but the workers live with, and among, the people, so they tell.

 λ on the following day, using the multiplier theory, people rush to that particular shop, only to find the shelves empty.

Sleight of hand?

Yes and yes again!

Otherwise, how does a whole truckload of mealie-meal or cigarettes, for that matter, be out of stock without reaching the shelves, voodoo!

Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC), we implore you, your job is clearly cut out for you. Follow the paper trail, from receiving to daily sales. 

Let sanity prevail in the marketplace.

We have, among us, sharks of the worst kind, with no conscience at all.

Sharks who worship at the devil’s temple; sharks who would sacrifice their mothers at the altar of mommon.

The mealie-meal (10kg Roller Meal) supposed to sell in supermarkets for the prescribed ZWL$70 will be selling for US$3 in other outlets where it will be mealie-meal galore!

20-cigarrette packs, normally selling for ZWL$19 are selling at double the price!

Sacrilege!

That a system put in place by the President, enabled and empowered by the same, should be hijacked by a few, to serve a treasonous selfish few at the expense of the masses, in these trying times of COVID-19 lockdown is an abomination!

Our hunhu/ubuntu has gone down the drain!

However, before I sign off, please note: ‘Social distancing’ and ‘physical distancing’ do not mean the same thing.

Herewith as taken from a social media post: 

Which is which; Social distancing or Physical distancing?

I have had a serious and beautiful intellectual engagement with colleague sociologists, all day. Want to share the fallout:

λ Social distancing is not the same as physical distancing and their usage must not be synonymous. 

λ Physical distancing is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures taken to prevent the spread of a contagious disease by maintaining a physical distance between people and reducing the number of times people come into close contact with each other.It typically involves keeping a certain distance from others (Wikipedia)

λ Social distance on the other hand refers to the level of acceptance people have of others outside of their own social group or class. 

This level of acceptance is defined by their general feelings toward others, and the amount of social interaction they have with people whose characteristics are outside of their social norm. 

Social distance is a measure of perceived difference (or distance) among groups. As a social construct, social distance is a familiar issue. 

Many common phrases refer to social distance, such as ‘out of your league’ and ‘birds of a feather flock together.

Some social characteristics that lead to social distance include race, ethnicity, age, gender, and economic class.

Some people for example, still exhibit extreme levels of racial social distance by not wanting to live or work with members of other ethnicities.

This emerges from feelings and manifests in attitude which is a demonstration of Social distancing. 

λ Clearly then,the strategy to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic is 

‘Physical distancing’ and not ‘social distancing’

λ A very welcome development is that, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has started using the phrase ‘physical distancing’ instead of ‘social distancing’ as a way to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus from people to people, a move widely welcomed by experts as a step in the “right direction”.

λ Let’s observe physical distancing to stop the spread of the coronavirus. 

λ Stay safe, love life!

And again I repeat: Fellow Zimbabweans, these are trying times. 

COVID-19 scourge is not an abstract concept, it is as real as you and me.

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