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Zanu-PF-ers’ unshut mouths : A national abomination
Vivid Gwede
July 16, 2013

http://thedotkom.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/zanu-pf-ers-unshut-mouths-attract-chaos/

When we were growing up one little piece of knowledge which really impressed me was how crocodiles open their odorous mouths and a lot of chaotic flies swam around them. Unfortunately, there is a similarity to the crocodile feat with what happens when Zanu-PF opens its political motor-mouth.

On Saturday, July 13, a friend called me to say that his company had closed and he had lost his job until further notice, citing an uncertain business outlook ahead of elections. Apparently, the business entity made it clear that should Zanu-PF “win” the elections there was no possibility of re-opening for the foreseeable future. For those of us who would not want to see a friend in a difficult situation, the temporary closure by the company which could easily turn into a prolonged one might seem too unfeeling when based on a speculative business approach. The development could compel one to look at the company’s decision with bitterness until they slip into the shoes of the business entity and look at things from its point of view and aware that it is an international company which could invest elsewhere.

Anyone with an inkling of knowledge of business prudence would know that companies operate on a commonsensical approach where they scout for low risk and more predictability of the near and long term outlook. To understand this point one needs to appreciate that you cannot throw eggs into a dark room where the possibility of them falling on fleece and hatching is zero and money is the equivalent of eggs to investors.

True fact it is that Zimbabwe has been such a risky investment destination for the past decade and one of those countries where even bilateral investment agreements (BIPPAs) with respectable nations are violated without looking over the shoulder by the economic tyrants in government. The economic hitmen in Zanu-PF can like magicians and even with a “wow!” effect drive a promising economy into dinasour-like extinction like in 2008, or attract, as it were, a serious chaos to fly in by opening their political mouths like crocodiles. But then again, it is only Zanu-PF more than a decade later, in that feat which can still pull more blunders and fresh drama in the sore and mirthless comedy of errors which has become its nauseating governance disposition.

In short, it is Zanu-PF which has the magical power to speak economic destruction and humanitarian tragedy into place - a Zimbabwean antithetical story to that of Jesus Christ speaking water into wine at the Biblical wedding at Canaan. True to fashion and openly oblivious of economic sense and the sigh of relief which Zimbabweans had been afforded by the GNU, President Robert Mugabe’s words at his party’s manifesto launch was a blast from the reckless past. He stunned our ears and tortured our minds by threatening to pull out of a Southern African Development Community (SADC) which is being the positive theatre of efforts to establish a common, modern and prosperous Southern African integrated economy.

In December 2003, he dragged us out of the Commonwealth. Let us admit - it is only Zanu-PF which has the courage, commitment and suicidal DNA to insist on fatal bravado and that sort of nationalist chutzpa like blind puppies, walking defiantly into the flooded and roaring Zambezi River even as elephants are being swept off their feet with ease right into the Mosi-a-Tunya Gorge.

Zanu-PF insists that they will take 100 percent ownership of 1 138 companies in 12 economic sectors and naively expect these companies to wait for the guillotine and placard waving looters! The truth is that should Zanu-PF “win” there will be a big fleeing and job losses and like my colleague told me it has begun. Those who laughed when Morgan Tsvangirai said he can create jobs did not know that he could keep quite many jobs, thousands and thousands of them, before creating a single job just by being President of Zimbabwe?

Zanu-PF can decimate them in a few hours of coming to power. Ironically, no matter how profound the challenges look, a great deal of Zimbabwe’s woes will be miraculously extinguished, or painfully exacerbated merely by news headlines after July 31 in respect of the outcome of the harmonized elections. We all know this reality and it is not because of the blamed sanctions, the West, the US, or puppets, but an economic culture of smash and grab promoted by Zanu-PF through their unshut mouths.

Vivid Gwede is an activist for democratic change.

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