By Blessing Vava
Zimbabwean president Robert
Mugabe presented his first State Of The Nation Address since 2007, following
massive job losses after a controversial Supreme Court ruling.
While following President
Robert Mugabe’s 2015 State of the Nation Address on social media, each
successive tweet and update was confirming my expectations; that there was
nothing new the 91-year-old leader was going to say as a solution to Zimbabwe’s
worsening economic crisis.
Plainly put, the address,
which was the first of its nature in eight years, was not worth any hype as in
the end, it was 35 minutes of nothing but hot air.
An
opportunity
This is because my
understanding of a SONA- which is made annually in other countries like South
Africa- is that it is an opportunity for a president to give a genuine and
honest report of the current political, socio-economic state of his nation.
It is a time when the
president gives an update on the government programs- including achievements-
and how the nation will be progressing from then on. In fact, it shapes the
debate of the parliamentary session.
For the ordinary Zimbabwe who
lost his or her job last month, or the vendor in Highfield, or my grandmother
in rural Chipinge, all ears were on this address, waiting to hear what the
President was to say on the state of affairs.
They wanted to hear if he had
any solution to the economic situation that is spiralling out of control and
has rendered over 20,000 people jobless in the past month alone.
Not
going anywhere
For me, perhaps the only
anticipation was to hear a major announcement of when he will be leaving
office.
I say so because retiring is
the only logical step for Mugabe as he has evidently failed to resuscitate our
ailing economy.
The state of affairs in
Zimbabwe right now can only be described as country in paralysis. And every
citizen, including the leadership, seems clueless because the future is no
longer predictable than before.
It has become so much
unpredictable that any day any moment the boss will tell you that your services
are no longer required.
Traumatic
It is just a traumatic
experience. Thousands of Zimbabweans have been dismissed from work in a space
of a month and more dismissals are coming.
However, Mugabe shortest
speech while presenting SONA, equally shows that it was not even worth the
wait, as Mugabe spent 35 minutes talking to himself.
His speech was hollow, and it
just shows that Mugabe is completely out of touch with reality. Definitely the
country has no leadership, no vision, and we are heading to a bottomless pit.
Everything that was said in
his speech is basically a copy and paste from the last two decades.
We must be careful of the
assumption that Mugabe had any ideas to begin with.
Denialist
The odds are high that the
only real plan is to perpetuate the trough snuffling as long as possible -
until Jesus returns or there about. ZANU PF is dominated by denialists like
Mugabe, self-serving egomaniacs who masquerade as "revolutionaries"
fighting to save the "masses", whose true freedom is permanently on
hold while "leaders" fiercely compete on who can loot more from
public coffers.
As I followed the tweets, he
spoke of revitalising agriculture, value addition, we'll tackle corruption,
grow SMEs, reduce corruption and on and on.
The bottom line is that this
is just mere rhetoric, and he is doing very little to make sure it is actually
implemented. The government will only do what suits them.
The president was also very
quiet on poverty, inequality and failed to address the disaster that happened
in Budiriro and many parts of Harare were citizens have been left homeless
after their houses were destroyed by the authorities.
All these years the big Chefs
who have been allocating people illegal land have been doing it under the
blessing of this government.
Skating
the issues
These are critical and urgent
issues affecting our people, and we expected the President to say something
about it. Instead, Mugabe was skating around the real issues, talking about a
ten point plan whose origins no-one knows.
It is not surprising that,
like ZIMASSET, the ten point plan will only remain on the mouths of government
leaders and the state media.
The president told the nation
that he has a plan for the diaspora, while forgetting that millions of
Zimbabweans either fled from the economic or the political crisis authored by
Mugabe himself.
An
appeal
Mr President, we appeal to you
to restore what you destroyed, and for sure all Zimbabweans in the diaspora
will graciously come back home.
This is the same diaspora that
was denied the right to vote by your government, and yet they are Zimbabweans.
From the look of things more and more Zimbabweans are going to leave Zimbabwe
for greener pastures.
As I conclude, I would say
that Mugabe and ZANU PF have destroyed Zimbabwe in spectacular fashion. Those
who cannot accept this reality are either possessed, or have had rose-tinted
glasses surgically implanted.
Everything seems to revolve
around self-enrichment, power and holding on by all means necessary. There is
zero accountability and the so-called rulers are fleecing the poor.
Mr President, if you have any
self-dignity after your SONA, then please gracefully walk away.
This
article is an edited version, the original version is on https://wazaonline.com/en/article/mugabe-doesnt-know-the-state-of-the-nation
Blessing
Vava is a blogger who writes from Chipinge in Zimbabwe. He can be contacted on
blessingvava@gmail.com. Twitter: @blevava
