The Sunday Mail
We applaud President Mugabe for being an exemplary father and husband who always holidays with his family.
Is this how petty we have become as Zimbabweans? Are Zimbabweans small-minded people? Let me zoom in a bit.
Is Obert Gutu, the spokesperson for Tsvangirai’s moribund MDC, a serious politician or he is some Micky Mouse and narrow-minded intellectual midget?
But let me not spit such venom before laying the charges. A few days ago, Gutu had the shocking audacity to attack President Mugabe for choosing to go on holiday in the Far East, saying this confirms what “we in the MDC have always said about the Zanu-PF regime, that this is a rogue regime”.
He and like-minded pseudo-analysts went on to reason that by holidaying in the Far East, the President was wasting taxpayers money and not sympathising with Zimbabweans who are facing difficult times.
Now this is rank madness. The kind of talk that should start and end as bar talk.
For starters, Gutu and his likes should know that on July 31, 2013 the taxpayers he now wants to speak for voted resoundingly for President Mugabe and as he executes his duties, the President is entitled to go on holiday.
Gutu should know that the taxpayers voted for President Mugabe knowing fully that he traditionally goes to the Far East for his annual break. But what a minute dear reader – does Gutu have the moral compass to attack President Mugabe for choosing to go to the Far East for his holiday? Gutu of Tsvangirai’s MDC?
Let’s rewind.
Where was the righteous Gutu when Tsvangirai was cruising in the Legends of the Seas in South Africa and Singapore with different women during the times of the inclusive Government?
Wasn’t Tsvangirai, who was the Prime Minister, then using taxpayers money to romp with his lovers, women he would dump as soon as he found a new interest?
Honestly, Gutu should just shut up!
President Mugabe is entitled to go on holiday and he sets a good example for many people by taking his family with him.
He doesn’t go on holiday with the latest girlfriend. He doesn’t go on holiday to abuse vulnerable ladies and later dump them Tsvangirai-style.
A holiday in simple terms is defined as that period in one’s working life when a person takes leave and for a given period is not going to work. This is the time when one recharges his or her batteries in readiness for the next given period at work.
In many cases, the law actually makes it mandatory for one to take leave from work.
People are driven by different habits, preferences, customs, family ties, financial and even health reasons when choosing where and how they will spend their break from work. It is against this background that I find those criticising President Mugabe for choosing to go to the Far East on his annual leave as small-minded and petty.
Even the talk that by going to the Far East for his holiday the President is sending the wrong signal is just cheap talk.
The President, just like any other Zimbabwean, has the right to choose where he wants to spend his holiday and in reaching that decision he puts so many things into consideration. Just because he is the President does not take away his freedom to choose where he wants to go for his holiday after a whole year of hard work.
So many people go on holiday during the Easter, Heroes and Independence holidays but the President goes on holiday just once a year. Why should people make a fuss about where he chooses to go?
Why should President Mugabe be forced to go on holiday in Zimbabwe where the media will not give him a rest? If the President chooses to go on holiday at some resort in Zimbabwe, the same small-minded people will turn around and say the President disturbed other holidaymakers blah blah.
The President does not show that he is sympathising with fellow Zimbabweans by merely going on holiday in Victoria Falls or Nyanga.
He does that by coming up with policies that enable businesses to flourish and coming up with programmes that improves the economy. And we all know that the President is doing that through Zim-Asset.
It’s not his fault that we have some lazy people who want to die as workers and not as employers. Unlike poor Tsvangirai, its not a secret that President Mugabe has a thriving business where he is making enough money to take care of his family – but it doesn’t even need to get to that because his Office entitles him to a holiday anyway. And perhaps to enlighten those that do not know, when someone in the position of President goes on holiday, he or she does not for the entire time go and sit on a beach listening to the songs of birds and sipping pina coladas. Heads of State and Government have what are called “working holidays”, and they use this time to clinch important deals for the country and/or to network and pave way for such deals.
But this something that the Gutus of this world can never appreciate because the Tsvangirais they admire only use holidays to cavort with women who are not their wives. Surely, if over-paid and under-worked executives go on holiday in Europe and America, why should it be an issue when a whole President also chooses to go on holiday at a place of his choice?
The President has friends in the Far East and why should he not go there to be with his friends during his annual leave?
Some have even tried to suggest that due to his decision to holiday in the Far East, President Mugabe has shown that he is not a Pan-Africanist. President Mugabe will not show that he is a Pan-Africanist by going on holiday in South Africa or some other African country.
NO. He will show this by standing for Africa and defending Africa. And there is no one who doubts that President Mugabe has done this in ways that are both admirable and inspiring.
At the end of the day, servant leadership principles tell us that those who serve at the top toil for us and as long as they abide by their contracts of employment, regardless of who they are or which position they occupy, where they decide to holiday is their family decision and business.
We applaud President Mugabe for being an exemplary father and husband who always holidays with his family.
For those whose teeth are on edge because of this, relax and listen to Zanu-PF Mbare Chimurenga Choir sing “Nyatsoterera Bob ari kutonga!”
