Open Letter to Zimbabwean Cabinet and MPs

Comrades, first I would like to extend hearty congratulations to those of you who have made it into cabinet.

At the same time I hope you realise the enormous burden of expectation and aspirations of an entire people this places upon you. Millions of people who would like to see their lives improve look up to you to make the right decisions for the country.

They sincerely wish that your actions will not be driven by self interest, but the interests of a nation that we are all proud of. It is needless for me to repeat to you that for this nation to be where it is today is today, enormous suffering was endured and thousands of lives were lost.

It would be a great betrayal of those who went through this suffering and even lost their lives, if we as Zimbabweans fail to keep the interests of the nation at the forefront of our thoughts. Given the pinnacle of responsibility that you are perched upon, it is incumbent upon you to lead by example in keeping the interests of the country at the forefront of your thoughts and actions.

Our country needs you, to support particularly its economy through your day to day purchasing habits. Government and people in running it are the biggest spenders in any country. It is therefore critical for government, and individuals within it, to make strenuous effort to support local economic activity.

The money that government has, is acquired through taxation of individuals and utilisation of resources that are meant to benefit everyone.

You might disagree, but I do not think it is proper to tax Zimbabweans in order to employ chiefly Germans and Chinese. It for this reason that I implore you to please, please seriously consider my proposal to acquire government vehicles, including top of the range luxury models, from local assembly plants.

The advice I am trying to give includes your spouses as well since they spent quite a substantial amount of money originating from our taxes.

I implore you to be at the forefront of supporting economic activity within Zimbabwe. Remember every time you import goods you are exporting a number of things. First you are exporting the labour needed to make those goods. Second you are exporting the economic activity in the chain of production of those goods right from procurement of raw material to finished product. You will be exporting government revenue, because that comes from taxing economic activity.

You will also be denying local people the opportunity to improve their skills and knowhow in the making of those goods. In other words, you will be exporting your skills base too. You should therefore not be surprised when professionals leave to try and utilise their skills elsewhere, resulting in massive brain drain. In the end the skills of people upon whom the government has spent a fortune to educate do not benefit the country to the maximum.

I know that you will be under a lot of peer pressure to import a lot of trinkets, and luxuries so that you appear prestigious.

Take for example Mr Chiyangwa. We all know about his imported shoes and cars. However at the end of the day, when he wanted votes, he had to come back to the people of Chinhoyi, not Italians, Germans, the British or Americans, upon whom he has lavished lots of spending power.

The same applies to all of you. Do not forget that it is the local people, who put you where you are and make you what we are. We may be poor. You may even believe that we do not wear underwear like one of the contestants in the recent election said. But, the big but, is that we are the people who make Zimbabwe what it is and by extension who make you what you are - officials in the Government of Zimbabwe.

So may I please beg you, support us. Support us in your purchasing habits. Buy your clothes and other trinkets from manufacturers in this country, so that we can have jobs.

Please ndapota, ngiyakucela.

Stale Cabinet

At the time when some in the cabinet announced by President Mugabe today were first appointed ministers, I was still herding cows barefoot in the dusty plains of Manyene.

Bill Gates was a college dropout tinkering with an operating system called PC-DOS unwanted by the world's biggest computer maker, IBM. HP were yet to make laser printers let alone become the biggest desktop computer vendor in the world. Apple were yet to start selling the now famous MacIntosh computer brand. The iPad and iPhone could not even have been imagined by the engineers of the time.

At that time I never imagined a life beyond digging for roots (fifi and magwiredembo), and consider myself an expert at then seemingly all important life skills like setting traps (kuteya misungo, mariva nezvikirimbani) and making homestead tools like cooking sticks and yoke sticks.

My life has since moved on. I don't know when I last wielded an adze (mbezo). A day spent without touching a keyboard is an abnormal day in my life.

The world has also moved on. Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher are dead. The John Majors, Tony Blairs, Bill Clintons and a whole clan of Bushes have stepped into and out of the limelight. Prestroika happened and Mikhail Goberchev went with it. The Russian drunkard, Boris Yeltsin also came and went. After all of them Putin even had the time to perform a now-you-see-me, now-you-don't and now-you-see-me-again trick.

However not so for the Zimbabwe cabinet. Sometime in 1980 I attended St Nicholas school at Mahusekwa for 1 term of my turbulent life. Everything about the school and the place has long since been forgotten. However there is one enduring memory. Enerst Kadungure and Sydney Sekeremayi came to address a meeting at Mahusekwa township and us school children were let off early to attend the meeting.

One was wearing a cream safari suit and the other a light blue safari suit. I sat fascinated as they chanted slogans (Pamberi neZanu!) and literally promised to bring heaven down to us. I was a grade 5 pupil then.

Right now I have just spotted another grey hair on my head (those things are becoming too numerous to pluck out). And Sydney Sekeremayi has just been appointed a minster again!

They say if you breathe the same pocket of air for a long time, it will become stale and you will die from lack of oxygen.

What happens if you appoint the same people into a country's cabinet again and again?