Vilifying good intentions fuel of Zimbabwe’s downfall

Vilifying good intentions fuel of Zimbabwe’s downfall

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By Rodgers Svovah

THE article by Kathy Buckle -- Pimply faced youths -- which was published on this website on Monday, August 7, 2006, cannot go unchallenged.

It is necessary to begin with a quote from Cathy's article. She writes: “And what where all these young 'officials' looking for -- it wasn't guns or bombs or drugs it was money - our own money."

Here she was referring to the so-called Youth Militia who have been drafted to search money launderers in Zimbabwe. I wonder
if Kathy is not one of the money launderers, because what she is writing of is totally out of sync with what is happening internationally

I am a Zimbabwean based here in the UK. In case Cathy does not know, it is
impossible here in the UK to deal in transactions of more than £5 000.00, in
fact to say impossible is an understatement; but rather it is illegal.

The requirements demanded are almost impossible to meet – either you
should produce your passport, full driving licence or a utility bill in
order to be able to do so. More still here in the UK you cannot withdraw
any amount more that £1 500.00 from a bank without first making an
appointment a day before your withdrawal so that the bank can check your
history before disbursing the money to you.

My question to Cathy is: “How many Zimbabweans here are able to produce such proof?”.

The bottom line is that most will find themselves in prison simply by attempting to transact such amounts.

Cathy's argument for keeping large sums of money goes to show how Zimbabweans have stooped so low in character in a bid to demonise Zanu PF. Get me right here, I am not advocating for Zanu PF. Far from it.

Recently, I have been very apolitical after the split of MDC. Actually I retreated to concentrate on my job and research work. But then that does not mean I should not defend common sense when need be. This problem of vilifying even the good intentions has been the fuel of Zimbabwe’s downfall.

Until our people learn to applaud what is good and denounce what is bad, Zimbabwe will continue to be the laughing stock of other nations. For the
avoidance of doubt, most of the really bad images about Zimbabwe have been surprisingly coming from Zimbabweans themselves.

My worry here is how then shall we turn back when suddenly Mugabe is gone, old as he is, and suddenly make a U-turn to tell the world that actually Zimbabwe is a good place after all.

My advice to progressive Zimbabweans is to guard against damaging our beautiful country in such a manner that it will take us a hundred years to repair after Mugabe is gone.

But then it is only the wise young generation who will be able to take over and quickly repair whatever damages the erring older generation will have caused. In this light it is imperative that we, the younger generation of Zimbabwe, should seriously guard against adding to the damages our country has already been inflicted by our erstwhile elders. The time to start repairing the damage is now!

It is time the young generation of Zimbabwe stop their rhetoric of “Zimbabwe yaora”, because sooner than we think, we will be left alone still shouting the same chorus, this time to the astonishment of the whole world, who will simply say to us “So what are you doing to repair the rottenness?”

I respect very much Zimbabweans like Mutumwa Mawere and Jonathan Moyo who had the courage to publicly iron out their differences in preparation for a more cordial tomorrow. What they did is what all progressive Zimbabweans should do – discuss their differences now so that when the time comes all our efforts are developmental rather than confrontational.

There seems to be more of this understanding, however, judging by what
most progressive young generation are discussing nowadays, barring of
course the old cliches of the likes of Geoff Nyarota. It is a pity that Geoff has been reduced to writing useless material. I contributed a lot of articles during the early 2000s under his guidance during his days at the Daily News. It is no secret that the man shaped and sharpened most of today’s great thinkers like Masola wa Dabudabu and myself. I have a lot of respect for Geoff, except for his recent outbursts. The man seems to be very bitter. I wonder why he is so bitter. Or has it become a Zimbabwean phenomenon that whenever someone is above 50, one suddenly becomes bitter and uncontrollable.

There are a lot of examples in Zimbabwe – Mugabe started behaving weirdly during his mid fifties – he is still uncontrollable, Tsvangirai was rational until he turned fifty and started behaving like the insane King George III of England, who I guess must also have been in his fifties when insanity caught up with him after he had lost the American colonies to George Washington.

Strangely enough, Kathy Buckle used to write very informative articles which, I should admit, shaped some of us into what we are today. Where has her reasoning gone or is she also a Zimbabwean in her fifties?

In my sincere view, what Gono has done is commendable considering the rampant money laundering in Zimbabwe. There is no doubt that we shall still need his input in a free Zimbabwe, as the man seems to have his country at heart as opposed to most so-called ‘liberation war heroes’ and of course so-called ‘civil society leaders’ whose only contribution is to denigrate our image as a nation while lining their pockets with donor funds.

As we move towards a democratic dispensation, we should be wary of people who seem to determined to preserve the status quo obtaining in the country -- that of a sleaze and non-accountability. There is nothing wrong with people being made to account for the large sums of money they are moving around with in car boots and suit cases.

No country will tolerate such a behaviour!

And equally, no sane person should be found to be supporting such criminal behaviour! I think Cathy Buckle should retract her stance if at all she wants us to take her seriously.

Rodgers Svovah is a Software Engineer based in England and currently doing a MSc research in Mobile Technology and Performance Engineering
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