EDITORIAL COMMENT: Let’s roll up our sleeves, comrades

14 Dec, 2014 - 00:12 0 Views
EDITORIAL COMMENT: Let’s roll up our sleeves, comrades President Mugabe poses for a photio with his new deputies, Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa and ambassador Phelekezela Mphoko

The Sunday Mail

President Mugabe poses for a photio with his new deputies, Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa and ambassador Phelekezela Mphoko

President Mugabe poses for a photio with his new deputies, Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa and ambassador Phelekezela Mphoko

The unfortunate part of politics at national level is that there never really is a honeymoon.

There is always the temptation – and danger – of over-celebrating an electoral victory or a political milestone. As soon as victory is won, the euphoria must translate into impetus to deliver. That is our message to the men and women whom President Mugabe reposed his faith in this past week when he swore them into office as Vice-Presidents, ministers and deputy ministers.

Yes, they should celebrate their achievements. They have done well over the years to get to the place where they are now.

But they should not destroy all that hard work by relaxing and thinking that they have “arrived”. The fact is that they have been recently elevated to those positions because their predecessors failed horribly.

The men and women who occupied those offices before them expended their time on what can only be described as a primitive accumulation of wealth by hook and by crook, and an atavistic pursuit of self-glorification combined by a thirst for power that can never reside easily alongside service to the people.

People were fired because they were not doing their jobs. We all know President Mugabe is a patient man, always trying to egg his team on to greater heights, cajoling them to perform to the best of their abilities.

And when they fail he has no choice but to get rid of the rotten apples before they spoil the whole basket.

At this moment in our history as a country, there is now little room for extended patience. The economy cannot wait for people to realise that they occupy public office so that they serve the nation.

As such, those people who were given weighty responsibilities last week must know that they must roll up their sleeves and put their shoulders to the wheel.

We are already into the second year of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation, and by 2018 we should be in a position to look back with a sense of pride at what would have been achieved as we embark on the next phase of our national development project.

There simply is no time to revel in the ephemeral glory of being appointed to a particular office. Much work lies ahead. Zim-Asset has to be seen in action and not just in mouthy platitudes.

Politicians are human. They always aspire to higher and higher offices. That is quite natural. In the same way that a lawyer aspires to be Chief Justice and a banker hopes to one day be Reserve Bank Governor, politicians too have ambition.

In fact, by its very nature, politics is an ambitious career proposition.

However, any politician who thinks that he or she can get to higher office merely on the back of scheming and treachery should know that he/she will never get far.

The best way to rise to the top is by working hard and showing people that you are truly a man or woman of vision who applies all mental faculties fully towards national development.

President Mugabe has always said that the people are the final deciders of who holds what office. And the people will make their choices based on an individual’s track record.

Those with a track record of diligence and hard work will be rewarded by the people.

Those who think they are “shefs” and do as they please will be discarded – like what happened to former VP Joice Mujuru and the mercenary cabal that surrounded her.

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