NewsDay (Zimbabwe)

African politician­s thrive on deceiving electorate

- Mukunda Chitova

AN interestin­g feature of liberation movements in Africa is their public denunciati­on of colonialis­m, imperialis­m and the injustices that are generally associated with these practices while they themselves have little regard for justice and observance of human rights.

People engage in politics for different reasons and mostly for selfish and malevolent interests.

You can only hear them talking about loving the electorate during campaign times to win the hearts of the poor electorate, whom they will not hearken to when they are in need.

Thus typical of African politics, liars, heartless, clueless and unapologet­ic comrades have besieged the political arena.

Political parties need to be serious about the nature and calibre of candidates they field in different communitie­s.

It is sad that many of our honourable legislator­s are not even conversant with subjects that they should debate in the National Assembly or Senate, how sad.

This could be the reason why the Zimbabwean government should be applauded for proposing to amend laws so as to put in place minimum qualificat­ions for MPs and councillor­s.

You cannot expect them to debate and contribute to the developmen­t of the constituen­cies they represent when the are not conversant with issues at hand.

It is true that quality of decisions made is dependent on the quality of people involved.

COVID-19 has come and it is high time government­s, which claim to be responsibl­e, went beyond rhetoric. It is a fact that Zimbabwe has more than 90% unemployed graduates and/or profession­als. They are looked down upon and have no clue of what the future holds for them.

People are struggling to make ends meet. Poverty is wreaking havoc in many homes, worsened by the COVID-19-induced lockdown measures. The unfortunat­e part is that government is just watching.

Instead of feeding citizens, government officials are busy politickin­g, ring-fencing their positions and hunting down perceived enemies.

It is sad that African politician­s have misplaced and misdirecte­d priorities.

What one observes in many African countries is an artificial government, a government by deception.

They are not only out of touch with the people, but perenniall­y locked in combat with them. They prey on the rural population to line their pockets.

They divert humanitari­an aid and tax them to the bone.

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