Why are we sleeping in Zimbabwe

The company I work for designs and manufactures turnkey electronic systems to customer specifications. Among the systems we make are queue management systems.

Recently a job landed on my desk. The salesperson let me know it was a queue management system for the consulate of my home country, Zimbabwe. The job required customization because of specific site conditions and non-standard components that needed to be incorporated into the system.

As the software engineer it was my responsibility to modify the system to customer requirements. In situations when it appears to me that the salesperson is not quite sure what the customer wants, I prefer to get it from the horses mouth.

I looked up the contact details of the Zimbabwe consulate on their website, believing that if I could get through to the reception I would soon be put in touch with the right people. One of the numbers advertised on the Zimbabwe Consulate website, appeared to be faulty. The other number was ringing and never getting answered.

For four straight days I tried calling either number about four or five times a day at different times. I never got through. I finally decided to contact the Zimbabwe embassy in Pretoria thinking maybe something was wrong.

Luckily with the embassy my call was answered at the second attempt. I told the lady on the other side that I was trying to get hold of the consulate, I needed some information for a job my company was doing for them. She gave me a number that was not listed on the consulate web site.

Again that number rang and rang and rang and rang and was never answered. I tried for a full day, no answer.

In the beginning I was full of so much zeal and energy proud that I was doing a job for my country. I was going to do my best. Now I am badly deflated. Ndaponja sebhasikoro ravaMugoni.

Seriously speaking how do we hope to attract tourists when we exhibit this level of simple lack of care, diligence and commitment to one's duties. How can a consulate responsible for issuing visas to tourists, never answer their phones? Alternatively how can they afford to have wrong numbers listed of the world's biggest market place, the Internet, for so long. That is if that is what the problem is.

I know the consulate staff a probably under tremendous pressure. With the very large number of Zimbabweans now living in South Africa, the consulate is bound to be overloaded with work. But to me that's not an excuse for never answering the phone in two weeks of trying.

The problem of congestion is one that can be easily addressed with good planning from the responsible authorities. I believed getting a queue management system is part of such a plan. That is why to this day I am so eager to have this job done and done properly. This is a system that is definitely going to serve me one day.

However as the English say, you can only take a horse to the water. For it to drink, it's another story.