LET us begin by quoting Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara, that great Burkinabe leader who crafted a new political philosophy for Africa and the developing world.
Cde Sankara raises a very fundamental point on leadership and what it should be all about.
He came up with an action oriented leadership thrust that, in just four years of his reign, transformed the livelihoods of the people of Burkina Faso.
There was a lot of action which manifested in visible results during his reign.
Let us draw your attention to Cde Sankara before we get into the thrust of our instalment this week.
He says:
“…Our revolution is, and should continue to be, the collective effort of revolutionaries to transform reality, to improve the concrete situation of the masses of our country.”
Good leadership is serving the interests of the people and developing the country and its economy.
There is a disturbing trend that is taking place in the country where leaders of various organisations continue to stick to the old order where criticism without solutions was the order of the day.
There have been public discussions on issues like Gukurahundi, conducted in a manner meant to be divisive yet there are no debates on the current economic trajectory that the new dispensation has taken.
Yet again, there is something new that the likes of SAPES Trust, hosts of these anti-people discussions, cannot escape from.
For instance, the launch of the Siyalima Irrigation Project in Guruve last week by President Emmerson Dambudzo was a departure from the ‘norm’.
It was about going back to the people with life-changing projects not to just talk of issues alien to the masses.
If SAPES is genuinely concerned about Gukurahundi, why don’t they bring people who were affected by those disturbances to the table, not those so-called experts who are seeking political capital out of people’s misfortunes?
This is why 2018 is the year that will determine the country’s future forever.
Elections are coming.
The economy is improving.
What the likes of Ibbotson Joseph Mandaza, Jonathan Nathaniel Moyo and Tendai Laxton Biti, to mention but a few, seem to be forgetting or ignoring is that Zimbabwe is now on an irreversible path to greatness.
That path cannot be hijacked by their angry rants which are driven by a desire to control the levers of power for the sake of power.
To fully grasp this issue, consider the following:
Bullets in Biti’s head
Biti is an interesting character whose penchant for high sounding platitudes often mask his disappointing failure to gauge the political mood.
He tries, but without success, to portray himself as the best political brains that the country has.
But judging from his rants, it is evident that Biti is not only a perpetually angry man but that his head is loaded with bullets instead of brains.
So there he was, speaking on a panel discussion on ‘Elections and Transparency’ at SAPES Trust in Harare on Thursday evening last week where he expressed his wish for a violent election in the country.
The tragedy, though, is that he puts his misplaced opinions as facts which he wants everyone to accept.
Let’s hear him speak:
“The issue of violence is going to be a factor in this election. The military did not plan this coup in order to lose power in July or August 2018,” Biti said.
“They have been marrying designer wives; they have been sending themselves to school. There are now more per capita PhDs in the army than anywhere else.
“And they were not getting those PhDs in order to get a job at Econet or Delta Corporation. They were getting those degrees in order to lay their hands on the State. So, this is going to be a fight of our lives. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is going to be a violent election.”
The problem for the MDC Alliance, as revealed by this column two weeks ago, is that here is an inane and inept bunch of men and women coalescing on a dead bet for power but they want to make their impending defeat everybody’s problem.
They are going to lose and the army will not be the reason for their defeat.
Give Tsvangirai a break please!
We have always said there is a problem in failing to come up with a succession plan in any entity.
We are witnessing it in the MDC-T.
What is sad in the MDC-T fiasco is that people were using the late Tsvangirai’s illness to advance their selfish personal agendas.
We were even saddened by reports that some of his family members were already latching on to his property the same way members of his party were fighting while the man was still alive.
Please, give the man a break!
The economy shall speak
While everything that is happening in the opposition circles is good news to the ruling ZANU PF, there is need for sober minds when it comes to the economy.
President Mnangagwa has already stated that it is everyone’s responsibility to develop this economy.
This clarion call goes to the likes of Biti, Nelson Chamisa and Elias Mudzuri and the generality of Zimbabweans.
Big things are in the offing.
We should brace ourselves for what is about to happen to the economy.
2018 is the year of great things.
Let those with ears listen.