AIN’T SEEN NOTHING YET
We have funny leaders who love launching silly projects for the sake of the camera.
A while back, former cabinet minister and top Zanu PF official, Patrick Chinamasa, became a laughing stock when he officially opened a skip hire, yes, those big dustbins!
As is the norm, the bin was nicely tied with a ribbon, which the minister cheerfully cut before declaring the bin officially open. Sounds like a scene from a cheap comedy but sadly it is very much reality.
While this came as a shock to many as the feeling was that the government, and by extension the ruling party, had stooped to new lows, it was actually not surprising because anything is possible with politicians.
Remember how some politician somewhere in East Africa also officially opened a small footbridge amid pomp and fanfare.
I guess it’s an African thing hence we see even Vice Presidents officially opening toilets!
Anyway, back to my natives. During the campaign period of 2018 general elections, the ruling Zanu PF introduced and commissioned those stone-age ovens made of dagga so women in rural parts of the country could bake bread for sale. The idea was to empower the rural women.
I have no doubt that at the time the beneficiaries had to accept and smile, but what kind of a party moves people 50 years backwards? One would have expected them to construct proper bakeries, powered by electricity or even solar; instead they thought reviving outdated practices would make rural folks happy.
According to information at hand, not even one of those bakeries is functional today - and you can’t blame the intended beneficiaries really.
And just when we thought the ruling party had done enough of these low life empowering tactics, they pulled another shocker over the weekend when they launched a ‘firewood selling’ scheme for the youth.
With wide grins and looks of satisfaction on their faces, some Zanu PF officials from Matabeleland jointly held a log in front of cameras to mark the start of the ‘first of its kind’ programme.
My heart sank when I saw the video and how these grown men beamed with pride and thought they were doing something remarkable by urging the young men and women to take selling of fire
wood seriously.
Instead of working on the economy and creating employment for youth, or working on programmes that make sense, our leaders are actually telling graduates to stop complaining about lack of employment and sell firewood; they surely never cease to amaze.
I am sure since the ruling party is already in a campaign mode ahead of 2023 election, we will see many more of these ridiculous programmes being commissioned, all in the hope of getting votes. With no shame, they will chant their slogan, pamberi ne (forward with) Zanu-pf – forward into the dark ages perhaps!