The story goes that in 1509, at the age of 18, one Íñigo López de Loyola took up arms for Antonio Manrique de Lara, 2nd Duke of Nájera, Spain. In 1521 he was gravely injured in the Battle Pamplona fighting the French; a cannonball ricocheting off a nearby wall shattered his right leg.
While recovering from surgery, Íñigo underwent a spiritual conversion which led to his experiencing a call to religious life. He became the co-founder of the Catholic order, Society of Jesus or Jesuits, and was canonised to be Saint Ignatius of Loyola.
Most Zimbabweans would be familiar with the Jesuits and the great work they have done at St Georges College in Harare, St Ignatius College in Chishawasha and St Paul Musami. The Bishop of Rome, the Pope, is himself a Jesuit! Great work!
I confess, I had my fingers and toes crossed in the hope that one Constantino Guveya Dominic Nyikadzino Chiwenga (born Constantine Guveya Chiwenga) would have a transformative experience comparable to that of St. Ignatius. Whilst the latter was transformed from a soldier into a Saint, I would have been content if former freedom fighter and leader of the November 2017 military coup, now First VP, retired Commander of ZDF, Constantino Guveya Chiwenga was transformer from a heartless tyrant to a normal human being.
VP Chiwenga has been out of the country, first in China then to SA and then back to China, for the last six months to receive specialist treatment.
“Since I started falling sick in October last year, there were not many who thought I would heal completely. There were not many who thought I would be standing before you like this,” Chiwenga told his audience at his home coming party.
“The sickness is called idiopathic oesophageal stricture. It means that you cannot take in food and also you cannot even vomit. It involves blocking of the oesophagus and I spent a lot of time in the intensive care unit.”
I for one, had hoped the VP had used these long days and nights in hospital to reflect on the tragic situation in Zimbabwe where decades of economic meltdown has left millions living in abject poverty. Zimbabwe’s basic services including health care have all but completely collapsed.
Whilst he is rightly pleased for the life saving specialist treatment, in Zimbabwe hundreds of thousands of ordinary Zimbabweans are are suffering and hundreds are dying every day from simple and easily treatable ailments. Decades of poor funding has left the country’s local health care services with no doctors, nurses, basic equipment, no medicine, no electricity, no water, etc., etc.
I expect the VP to at least acknowledge the tragic situation in Zimbabwe and have some human sympathy for all those who cannot get even the most basic health care let alone the specialist care he received.
“We are the most educated country in Africa, but I do not understand what has become of the young people . . . Every day, they want to make rich pickings, with little sweat. Where is that spirit coming from?” was the VP’s reaction to the reports that doctors are on strike.
“Let us put the interests of our country first and have a unity of purpose. That is the Zimbabwe we want.”
Boy, I was hopelessly wrong!
Zimbabwe is a failed state. 39 years of corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship have left the country in economic ruins and political paralysis. And even now with the country in ruins and millions of Zimbabweans suffering and dying from poverty, hopelessness and despair.
Instead of VP Chiwenga of thinking of the suffering masses, the role he has played in causing the economic ruin and how to alleviate the nation’s suffering, all he is thinking about is consolidating his iron grip on power and the vast wealth he and his fellow Zanu PF have amassed over the last 39 years. Their appetite for absolute power and wealth is insatiable!
Chiwenga is angry with the doctors for asking for living wage and not the pittance US$ 40 per month government is paying them. He lives in a palatial C&M mansion, has multiple farms and business interest worth millions of dollars, he owns 45 gold watches, etc., etc. Of the two, who is guilty of “making rich pickings, with little sweat”!
Comrade Constantino Guveya Dominic Nyikadzino Chiwenga and his fellow Zanu PF cronies consider themselves the nation’s liberation heroes and heroines per excellence. It is just a reaffirmation of their involvement in the war of independence, they certainly never ever believe in the freedoms, rights and dignity of the ordinary people. They were mercenaries fighting for a reward, they wanted absolute power and even if that meant riding rough shod over the people denying them their freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life itself!
VP Chiwenga and his Zanu PF colleagues are filthy rich the more so compared to the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans now living in heart breaking abject poverty. Zimbabwe’s ruling elite have certainly got their pound of flesh and yet they are still demanding more! Their appetite for power and wealth is insatiable.
After 39 years of absolute power Zanu PF leaders have become incredibly rich and powerful the thought of giving up their loot and power is simply unthinkable. As much as the country is desperate for change to get out of this mess, Chiwenga and company are equally determined to hang on to power at all cost. We are in serious, serious trouble!
In Chiwenga, we have a determined tyrant; his recent six hospital break has hardened his resolve, not softened it.
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