‘ǯ– Ž‡– ‘—” …‘—–”› „Ž‡‡† —‡…‡••ƒ”‹Ž›

Sir,

Why is our leadership so hard of hearing? What exactly will it take to convince them that immediate dialogue is the only solution to this current impasse?

It appears government is just hellbent on crisis-managing the current political situation that is escalating every day. We are now imploring the powers that be to convene a national dialogue as soon as yesterday. It certainly is no sign of weakness but it’s quite the opposite.

The more the leadership keeps expending energy on berating people for the manner in which they are expressing their grievance shows that we are far from being ready to engage.

Opposed

As opposed to investing energy in finding lasting solutions to the socio-economic and political problem besetting us, all government is doing is issuing warnings. Our kingdom is burning and our leadership seems not to give two shakes of a duck’s tail. It is important to remind ourselves that the problems we have are self-created. We have no outside forces to blame for this.

Opportunities

There have been countless opportunities at our disposal for us to speak sense to each other and create an environment where we can all embark on a constructive discourse and demonstrate to the world that dialogue in this part of the world really is sacrosanct.

As opposed to grabbing those opportunities, our leadership has found it fit to just trivialise these otherwise serious issues and the result has been the brewing of more anger among the populace. If we continue treating the crisis in this manner, we will soon gravitate to a civil war. When we get there, the stench of blood of the scores of our people that will be spilled will be so strong we will wonder how we got there. The scars we will bear as a nation will stay with us for decades.

What legacy does this government want to leave? If we still have men and women of honour in our entire government leadership, let’s hear you speak up and defend the truth. If you are incapacitated to do what you should be doing, resign and not be complicit to this hemorrhaging of the nation. We will remember that and generations to come will respect your decision.

M Matsenjwa