Jayprog

The job stay-away that was scheduled for 3 to 4 April 2007 in Zimbabwe has shown one big thing that the opposition and the Labour organization have got to address. This event was a failure and it spells the clear message that the concerned parties advocating for democratic change have to change their tactics.

It is now imminent fact that Znu PF has advanced it's machinations and it is nearing a point of becoming an immovable stumbling block to democracy not only at home but also regionally.

Considering that the SADC meeting that was held last week in Tanzania did not come with any meaningful solutions to the Zimbabwe crisis it is now upon the people of Zimbabwe to take the full task to them and show the way for change. In a revolution some people have to die. At the moment people in Zimbabwe think that their problems have to be solved by someone from outside but sadly this cannot be.

The reason why Zanu PF wins all the time is that it is a strategist movement that keeps ahead of people and has established a database of the country's political landscape including the profiles of those who are at the forefront of propelling change issues. Zanu PF has always made it clear even during the liberation struggle that it has to keep the main thing the main thing all the time and in this case it (Zanu PF) is Zimbabwe's main thing.

 The adage that 'the strength of a string is its weakest point' holds more water in the Zimbabwean political case than any other example. Zimbabwean re a hungry lot and sort of cowards ware so afraid of death that they cannot do anything once reminded of the past. This is the reason why Zanu PF stays in power. Hunger and fear play a pivotal role in sustaing the ruling party.

 Common philosophy tells us that a hungry man is an angry man but then to tame the anger yoone needs to have mechanisms of continuously controlling the hopes and hunger levels within optimistic levels. This is what the ruling party is doing at the moment.

 Many people are surprised why the ruling party continues to field the same candidate for presidential elections. This is a sure way of wining, all people in Zanu PF are power hungry and equally afraid of the beast that they created and cannot tame at the moment and as such one has to appear to be friendly to the system so that they can survive. If one dares to oppose the system it means their demise politically if they are fortunate.

 The greatest tragedy that Zimbabwe has ever experienced in its political sphere is the advent of Jonathan Moyo. This man destroyed the will of the people and put the country on a steep collision course with all control instruments lost. If Jonathan Moyo did not disturb the nation Zanu PF would have lost and we could be talking of a new era now.

 Now people are so afraid of expressing their rights and views to the extend that they walk more than 25km to work so as to appear that they are patriotic.

 Some companies are now paying transport allowances that are more than basic salaries and even providing food at work so that employees can keep on coming to work. This is unacceptable in any civiliseed society. I can only define this as modern day slavery because what has now become important to the employer is to bring the employee (slave) to work andexploit their energy.

As Zimbabweans awaited the announcement of the 2007 Monetary Policy by the Reserve Bank governor Dr. G Gono, the country was filled with an aura of expectations in the air.

I glued my eyes to the TV screen for two solid hours also hoping that something new would be said, but nothing worth the solution to the current crises arose from this rather press conference that the governor addressed.

It was rather an economics history lecture in jargon and semantics to avoid the real problems facing this Southern African Country that is suffering from more than a decade of recession. I certainly knew that the devaluation of the dollar was not going to be much of an issue as many Zimbabweans expected.

The devaluation of the dollar is taboo as far as the Zimbabwe economics is concerned because anyone who attempts to devalue the dollar is an enemy of the ‘’state’’

I believe the main reasons why devaluation will not de addressed publicly is because;

1. The President made his views way before and no one can challenge that.
2. Responsible people who are said to be in charge of the economics of this country are afraid of losing their jobs because they have a case study of Simba Makoni who lost his job for the same reason of trying to steer the hornet’s nest.
3. Devaluing the Zimbabwe dollar is like killing the cash cow. Most ministers and senior government officials get the hard currency at paltry rates to finance their lavish lifestyles. An ordinary Zimbabwean would need Z$4 million to access US$1000 whereas a senior government official would only need Z$250 000 to get the same amount. From this simple calculation it then makes sense to protect the exchange rate at a fixed rate to support the politicians’ lives.

The Reserve bank governor has been reduced to a Semantics Technician based at the Reserve bank. It really took Dr. Gono a cool two hours to tell the nation that the Zimbabwe dollar is not going to be devalued something that he could have done through the local press at very minimum cost.

Dodging the truth is what is killing this economy and a real time approach has to be taken. Suppliers are using the parallel market rates and it has been proven that the government has it’s hands tied as far as price control is concerned and this is not helping the nation.

For the governor to say ‘’something’’ has to be done about smugglers and the little fines they pay is really short of saying that the government has failed. Personally I think the admission of guilty fine of $250 is justified because people have no money and above all it is the law gazetted fine.

The use of the word ‘something’ in a crisis is not good enough because everyone is looking for a definite strategy that revolves around specific parameters. It has become a norm in government addresses to say that corruption is rampant but the real corrupt people still roam the streets and it looks like no one wants to expose them, or is it that exposing them has become useless since they can easily find their way back home.

If this government is serious about tackling corruption, there are questions that have to be addressed first. The issue of too many expensive imported cars on the streets of Zimbabwe when there is an acute shortage of foreign exchange spell something is wrong. Where are these people getting the money when the nation is staving and the government is failing to pay reasonable salaries to doctors and nurses?

The culture of stubbornness and non-caring by some senior government officials should be dealt with first before any meaningful development can be realized in Zimbabwe. There are a bunch of politicians with selfish interests and misplaced priorities leading this country into turmoil. Things are crumpling and some people just chose to ignore the situation. There is a water crisis in Harare and one wonders, the health delivery system is crumpling simply because some individuals cannot come to sense and realize that a doctor and a nurse are critical in health service delivery.

True leaders should learn to be criticized and pluck a leaf from the wisdom of the poor villagers that elected them to power. Some Zimbabwean politicians have reached a stage where they are so confused that they think the people are meant to serve them whereas the opposite is the truth.

I do not condone violence against women at all for the obvious reason that I have said several times. Above all my mother is a woman

I have of late realized that many people and organizations are becoming crazy about gender issues and it seems where gender issues are discussed the main thrust will be women issues. If people continue at this unprecedented rate of trying to advance women issues, it is not surprising that we will end up with negative progression.

Negative progression results as a product of over emphasis perpetrated by selfish or otherwise good reasons without proper monitoring or boundaries. In third world countries the issue of gender has resulted in disintegration of an otherwise closely knit society as women misinterpret the concept of gender equality.

Zimbabwe is one country that has gone a long way in addressing gender equality but it is nearing a point where it might soon lose focus due to over emphasis.

While there is great need to address the imbalances of nature I feel gender equality should also focus on quality rather than quantity. Equality through quantity correction can lead to quality being compromised.

One serious blander that women and policy makers do in trying to address gender is to employ the so-called affirmative action factors. This type of thinking almost destroyed the Zimbabwean woman in the education system when girls where given special preference at universities ahead of boys even with lower pass marks. This resulted in employers looking at women as some substandard graduate materials produced by universities in order to address the balance sheet.

In political circles Zimbabwe almost suffered a serious blow when women advocated for reserved seats to be solely for women to contest. This method violates the simple principle of democracy. Democracy is so blind when it comes to gender. All humans are equal and should fight on level planes.

In any given population sample there are more women than men and I strongly feel there is no serious need to put quota systems to address gender balances. The most important aspect is equality in terms of social rights and privileges not as in numbers like what many women are advocating for.

The world is not equal and that is why there are more women than men. Nature has its own way of balancing its complex equations and no mortal body can assist this delicate process.