Ncube, Zimbabwe is brokeb by it is not the mythical 'can-do' youths who will fix it. By Wilbert Mukori

You can tell where the lion has been from the huge paw prints!

 

“For those who are still in denial, it is worth restating: Zimbabwe is broken. Its people are broken. Their minds and spirits are broken. The infrastructure is broken - rotting, in fact. And, unsurprisingly, the image of our country is in tatters,” wrote Trevor Ncube in his article, “Only a 'Third Way' can fix Zimbabwe”.  What great opening lines!

 

In my humble opinion, Ncube’s opening stand head and shoulder together with Alan Paton’s equally memorable opening lines in “Cry, the beloved country”.  “There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass-covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it.”

 

Could not agree with you more Trevor; Zimbabwe is broken and in desperate need of fixing. You are placing your hopes of a new Zimbabwe on the youth.

 

“My greatest hope for Zimbabwe lies in our young people who seem not to have been contaminated by our limiting politics and debilitating milieu. My sagging spirits have been lifted by this new generation, one unburdened by colonial baggage,” you said.

 

“This is a can-do generation that could catapult us into our future if it is empowered.”

 

Where the fcuk (pardon my French) have these can-do youth been hiding all these years whilst the country sunk to these nauseating depths of despair and hopelessness!

 

If these can-do youths are indeed the “can-do generation” – as it says on the tin – then why do they need to be “empowered”? They are waiting to be empowered by whom?  

 

These can-do youths are a myth; they are like the beautiful ones who are yet to be born! Youth has become an over rated attribute, a silver bullet; if you have youth on your side then you do not need anything else, especially in our political discourse.  

 

Look at the Zanu PF and its Generation 40 (G40) faction, they have been complaining that the war vets should not be flaunting their liberation war credentials because they are no guarantee for competent leadership and yet they have been flaunting their youths as if that was the guarantee. Indeed, for all their avowed faith in youth it is the G40 faction that is fighting tooth and nail to keep Mugabe is power. Grace Mugabe, the G40’s leader, has repeatedly said Mugabe must stay in office even if it means getting him a wheelchair! One should be careful of what they wish for!

 

Grace will have to get her husband the wheelchair sooner than she thought! At 92 years of age Mugabe is old and has been stumbling and falling in public. She will have to keep him strapped to his wheelchair too because he now dozes off at the drop of a hat, even when he is standing up!

 

I too have hope that this broken country can be fixed and become a great nation. If we can start to think and reason as we should have been doing all along then there is no reason why we cannot fix what has been broken and, better still, strike out and build anew a greater then we can dare imagine at present.  We are in this mess because of Mugabe and Zanu PF corruption and brutal oppression but this would not have happened if we had not switch-off and taken French leave of our senses!

 

Yes we have been subjected to all manner of physical and mental abuse by Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs but that will never explain why we then risked life and limp to vote for a corrupt, incompetent and “pedestrian” opposition, as Ncube called it?  

 

“Zimbabwe also needs a new constitution,” as Ncube rightly pointed out. “The current document is the outcome of horse-trading between Zanu-PF and the two MDC factions. It fails to lay a strong foundation of the rule of law, strong national institutions, transparency and accountability. And, of course, the sanctity of life and respect for private property must find full expression.”

 

The worst thing the pedestrian MDC opposition did was failing to implement even one democratic reform in the five years of the GNU. We are in this political and economic mess because Mugabe was able to blatantly rig the July 2013 elections because the democratic reforms required to stop the vote rigging were never implemented. And yet even with all the evidence that MDC sold-out many Zimbabweans still continue to sheepishly follow MDC  - proof they are still on French leave mentally!

 

Zimbabwe has some of the best land to produce all the food the nation needs with plenty left over for export, for example. For the last decade the country has failed to produce enough to feed our own people. We are starving in the Garden of Eden – proof we are on French leave mentally.

 

Zimbabwe is a broken country because as a nation we have taken leave of our senses. To fix the broken nation and to go on to soar to even greater heights all we need for the nation to start thinking and listen to voice of reason.

 

It is not the can-do youths who can fix this nation but more the can-think nation. Thinking is not the preserve of the young or the old alone; anyone can think. Even Mugabe and Mai Mahofa and their harahwa and chembere generation, Tsvangirai and Joice Mujuru and their sekuru and mbuya generation, Biti and Grace Mugabe and their tsumborume and mvanha generation, school leavers and everybody; they can all think.

 

Granted it is not everyone who can be the competent and visionary leader the nation needs; still, a thinking populous will separate the wheat from the chuff – depend on it.