“Masiyiwa challenges entrepreneurs to solve problems in
their communities” screamed the headline. When Strive Masiyiwa speaks, you
listen and, I will hasten to add, I am not the only in that! When you are rich,
Strive Masiyiwa, is filthy rich and so when he speaks even the rich and
powerful sit-up and listen.
“At the beginning of the COVID pandemic in 2020, I was
told that one of the biggest problems was testing for the virus,” revealed
Masiyiwa, in the article.
“African countries had no access to test kits and masks (used in hospitals). We
have probably already forgotten how hard it was to get them. But it was not
that long ago that African governments were paying crazy prices for these
things. Corruption erupted across the continent, as unscrupulous thieves moved
in to take advantage. Some ministers and civil servants even joined in!
“I was asked by President Cyril Ramaphosa to solve the problem.”
Masiyiwa went on to describe how he and three other Africans
went to build Africa Medical Supplies Platform, “within 6 weeks”; an eCommerce
platform on which many African countries (was later expanded to include some
countries in the Caribbean) pooled their orders to take advantage of bulk order
and African Export Import Bank (AfriEximbank) facilitated the payments.
Well done Strive! Well done everybody!
“Not every problem out there is screaming for a political
solution. Leaders need to trust those with the right skills to step forward and
help them,” concluded Masiyiwa.
“Now here is something that might surprise you: Today, the AMSP is the largest
eCommerce platform in Africa by volume of products sold and by value.
“This should inspire you to go out and solve problems in your community,
particularly those you complain about.”
Frankly, I for one, and the overwhelming majority of
ordinary Africans, the impoverished and powerless povo; are not not inspired,
not in the least!
Mr Masiyiwa it is hard enough to be a successful entrepreneur
even in a country like the UK, Japan South Korea as many a citizen from the
said nation will readily testify because everyone else wants the same thing –
success. In the above-named countries the entrepreneur gets a leg-up; it is relative
easier raise the working capital from the Bank or own resources, the country’s
stable and booming economy creates many opportunities for all, etc.
In Zimbabwe and many other African countries, the
entrepreneur does not get any help from anyone or anywhere. Decades of gross
mismanagement and rampant corruption have left many countries with a few ruling
elite and their cronies who are filthy rich. Their appetite for looting and
good life is insatiable and like all looters their criminal waste of human and
material resources knows no bounds. Africa has become synonymous with such dichotomous
contradiction as a nation being the breadbasket a whole region during colonial days
finding itself total dependent of important food aid or face starvation after
independence.
The overwhelming majority of ordinary African are wallowing
in abject poverty; they do not dream of becoming an entrepreneur because they have
no money, no education. They are hoping to get a job, God knows there are no
employment opportunities given the economic meltdown due to decades of gross
mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness earning the country the
pariah state label and forcing would-be investors to shy.
An entrepreneur in UK is like a salmon fish in a salmon fish-farm;
there is competition for food with the fish of all sizes but there is enough
for all.
In Africa most people are poor, are the kapenta fish in a
pool that is shrinking fast by the day. They share the pool with catfish and
crocodile and these have been joined by the herons, marabou stock, etc.; all
have kapenta fish on their menu!
The way out of the trap of poverty and hopelessness for millions
of Africans is for them to find a job; they are not dreaming of becoming an entrepreneur.
Anyone serious about ending poverty in Africa must therefore address the root
cause of poverty – the curse of rigged elections that have allowed corrupt and
incompetent leaders to remain in office.
“If I were a rich man,
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
All day long I'd biddy biddy bum.
If I were a wealthy man.
I wouldn't have to work hard.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
The most important men in town would come to fawn on me!
They would ask me to advise them,
Like a Solomon the Wise.
'If you please, Reb Tevye...'
'Pardon me, Reb Tevye...'
Posing problems that would cross a rabbi's eyes!
And it won't make one bit of difference if I answer right or wrong.
When you're rich, they think you really know!”
Chaim Topol: Fiddler on roof
Well, Topol was right, the rich can be arrogant and
patronising! Mr Strive Masiyiwa you can biddy biddy bum with Africa’s Godfathers
of corruption and tyrannical oppression all day every day. We must address the
problem of rigged elections and bad governance because it is the root cause of
why millions are wallowing in abject poverty and their ticket out of poverty. Mnangagwa
and his cronies’ insatiable greed for power and wealth are the reason millions
are poor and their future is grime and will remain so until we end
dictatorship.
Mnangagwa and company are not special, crocodiles, whilst we,
are the kapenta fish who exist for the sole purpose is to be eaten. Mnangagwa
and company a mere mortal just like the rest of us, fallible just like all
human being; the idea that they have the right to ride roughshod over the rest
of us denying us our freedoms and rights including the right to free elections
and even the right to life is an outrage.
The big issue in Zimbabwe is implementing the democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections and to pretend that the nation can thrive regardless of the criminal waste of resources by the corrupt ruling elite is nonsense. And, given the seriousness of our situation, all those who continue to champion such nonsense, must shut up!
We cannot deny there is criminal, absolutely criminal, waste of human and material resources in Africa through gross mismanagement and rampant corruption by those in positions of power and authority. Everyone knows this is the problem, they also know the solution is to remove these incompetent and corrupt thugs from office; easier said than done because the thugs rig elections.
ReplyDeleteStrive Masiyiwa started his working life soon after independence when the country's economy was still very robust and strong. He like many others of his generation landed a good paying job from University and earning some working experience which, no doubt, helped him launch his own business. 2% or so of today's University graduates land a poorly paid job when the graduate, the rest have to join the army of street vendors selling mobile phone card or Chinese trinkets!
No doubt Masiyiwa would have become the successful business tycoon he is today regardless of the economic meltdown challenges the nation is facing, at least that is what he is saying now. OK Mr Masiyiwa, you are special, super-special. We are not here to denying Masiyiwa is extra, extra special; all we ask of him is to acknowledge that the overwhelming majority of us are not special and yet would earn a decent living if the criminal waste of resources by the ruling elite is stopped.
If Masiyiwa is not going to fight for an end to the curse of rigged elections and bad governance then he should shut up. By telling us we should focus on entrepreneurship, not rigged elections, as the solution to our problems he not only wrong but, more significantly, he is fighting in the corner of the corrupt and tyrannical ruling elite.
Mugabe getting the politicians, Police, judiciary, bankers, church leader down to the village head in his deep pockets, it was the work of just a few month, and he had the making of the de facto one party dictatorship that has ruled the country with an iron fist with the consequences we see today. The consequences many, like Masiyiwa, for their own selfish reasons, refuse to see much less address. We are not only fighting the corrupt ruling elite, we have to fight the legion of courtiers and courtesans who want the status quo to remain because they are comfortable!
ZEC Official has died. He was described by colleagues and stakeholders as a professional and astute leader who will not be easily replaced.
ReplyDeleteMr Mutambiranwa earned respect across the political divide for his professional conduct during elections.
There is no senior ZEC official who did not know that Zanu PF was rigging the elections, for one thing ZEC was deliberately under resourced so that the commission did not know the half of what was being done in the name of ZEC. ZEC officials were paid to see nothing, hear nothing and to keep their traps shut!
The root cause of Zimbabwe's economic and political mess is the country's failure to hold free, fair and credible elections and the consequences of the failure are the economic ruins and the heart-breaking human suffering and deaths. ZEC officials played their allotted role in the de facto one party dictatorship that has ruled Zimbabwe these last 41 years to pretend any one of they was an innocent worker is just nonsense.
In his book, Excelgate, Professor Jonathan Moyo revealed some of the dirty work ZEC officials have done in the 2018 elections. One of these fine days, when Zimbabwe will finally implement the democratic reforms and end the de facto dictatorship; the nation will then institute a thorough investigation into the inner working of such bodies as ZEC, the whole truth will be uncovered.
@ Batshele Nduna
ReplyDelete“I could be wrong. Are diasporans not allowed to vote? What I notice is that ZANU is encouraging its members the diaspora to go home and register to vote while opposition are busy crying to be registered as voters in countries they are domiciled. Bizarrely no one suggests the modalities of going about the vote. Do we ever consider that Zimbabweans are all over the world? The few in Brazil also have the same rights as the millions in South Africa and thousands in the UK. Who will be left out. My take is just go to Zimbabwe to register to vote and on the voting day go back to Zimbabwe and cast your vote. If it's expensive for you how much will it be for the state to take the vote to all corners of the globe? Have a think about the logistics before blaming the government.”
Millions of Zimbabweans have left the country for one reason or other and Zimbabweans have been asking for change of legislation to allow them to vote. With 3 to 5 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the case of extending the postal vote used to allow all those in foreign lands and cannot be in Zimbabwe to vote was clear for a long time now. In September 2018 Mnangagwa himself admitted the need for it whilst he was in USA for the UN General Assembly Heads of State meeting.
Last month, Patrick Chinamasa, Zanu PF Acting National Commissar said Zimbabweans in the will not get the vote “as long as the sanctions imposed by the West on some Zanu PF leaders remain because these leaders cannot travel campaign!” This is a feeble excuse because at least half Zimbabweans in the diaspora are in SADC country and others who have not imposed any sanction on anybody.
Zimbabweans in the diaspora have agree to pay as much as US$10 for the diaspora vote to cover the cost of organising the vote; that will more than cover the cost and it if infinitely cheaper than having to travel back to Zimbabwe to register to vote and then go back to vote.
Beside denying the diaspora the vote, the regime is set to repeat the usual irregularities and illegalities such as failing to produce a verified voters’ roll, make sure the public media is free for all other contestants, etc.
All the observers of the 2018 elections with any democratic credentials condemned the elections as a farce; the West produced a list of reforms required to ensure free and fair elections. None of the reforms have ever seen the light of day. None!
In 2013, SADC leaders wanted the elections postponed until reforms were implemented because it was obvious the election will never be free and fair without first implementing the reforms. MDC leaders did not listen then nor in the 2018 elections. It is clear MDC leaders are once again going to participate in the 2023 elections.
Zanu PF has counted on MDC leaders participating in the elections regardless how flawed and illegal the process happens to be; the act of participating has given the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. Zanu PF has been giving away a few gravy train seat as bait, a bribe MDC leaders have found irresistible.
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic and political mess is the country’s failure to hold free and fair election. With the country’s economy in ruins, basic services such as education and health care all but collapsed and 49% of the population now living in abject poverty, it is clear the situation is unsustainable, and the issue of rigged elections and bad governance must be addressed. Zanu PF is set to rig the 2023 elections but, this time, the regime will not get legitimacy and thus away with it.
Mismanagement, corruption and lawlessness are the three main causes of many nations', the world over and through out the ages, down fall. Instead of grasping the nettle and deal with these three vices honestly many African country have offer one feeble excuse after another with blaming the white colonial oppressors top of the list of scapegoats.
ReplyDeleteIf they are not blaming the white colonialists they are trying to make the economy work regardless the mismanagement, etc. and the opposition and their supporters are guilty of believing all this nonsense. The harder people have tried to make the misrule work the more wasteful the regime has been convinced there is no limit to what blacks can endure!
It is shocking, to say the least, that someone as shrewd and savvy as Strive Masiyiwa would not have recognized by now that the insatiable greed of the ruling elite combined with their wastefulness have turned them into black-holes hovering up the nation's wealth but giving nothing back. It is foolishly enough that the madness has been allowed to go one for decades now and insane to suggest it should be allowed to continue into the future.
We must cure ourselves of the curse of rigged elections and bad governance and nothing of any substance can ever be accomplished in Zimbabwe until we do it.