EDITORIAL Comment: Heed Dr Mugabe’s call to action

05 Oct, 2014 - 09:10 0 Views
EDITORIAL Comment: Heed Dr Mugabe’s  call to action First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe - Picture by Kudakwashe Hunda

The Sunday Mail

First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe - Picture by Kudakwashe Hunda

First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe – Picture by Kudakwashe Hunda

First Lady Dr Grace Mugabe’s entry into mainstream politics has been one of the biggest talking points in the public arena over the last couple of months.

As with any politician, she has her supporters and her opponents.

Unfortunately in Zimbabwe, we are still in that retrogressive mode where politicians are demonised or lauded according to which party they belong to, or — more recently — which faction they are thought to subscribe to.

Which is why many people have missed the essence of the message that Dr Mugabe has been giving in her public appearances.

It is a message that she reiterated at her first rally in her nationwide tour on Thursday in Chinhoyi.

She said: “Instead of concentrating on social services tavakuswera tichirwisana. Tinozviziva kuti tirikuenda kucongress, but inouya ichipfuura kouya imwe.

“Vanhu varikuda mvura nesewage system yakanaka. Tinozviziva kuti matowns anga asina kudhizainwa kutakura vanhu vakawanda asi ngazvigadziriswe.”

In a nutshell, her line is that too much energy is being expended by public officials on politicking and fighting each other ahead of Zanu-PF’s National Congress in December while service delivery suffers.

Dr Mugabe reminded the nation that people would vote for the people who they knew could bring development and upliftment of livelihoods.

Essentially, this is a call to action.

Our politicians and public officials have become so preoccupied with jostling for posts and one-upmanship that they have forgotten why they are elected in the first place.

The needs of the citizenry should always come first, and politicisation of service delivery can never result in national development.

As Dr Mugabe said in Chinhoyi on Thursday, the best way any politician or political party can attract support is by working hard to fulfil the needs, aspirations and wishes of the ordinary man and woman.

She pointed out that Zanu-PF could never hope to get the support of opposition supporters by politicising public and social services. Similarly, it does not help the ruling party in any way when this same politicisation is roped into factional battles.

Zimbabwe’s development must supersede any other consideration when it comes to the duties of any public official.

It is a principle that is also enshrined in the Constitution of Zimbabwe, which demands that public officials put the nation first.

If the same amount of energy that is being put into factional battles is applied to implementation of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation, then we will be well set to meet the targets on food security and nutrition, infrastructure and utilities, social services and poverty eradication, and value addition and beneficiation by 2018.

As things stand, attentions are divided.

This only serves the interests of those who would like to see President Mugabe’s Government fail and those who would want to see Zimbabwe remain an underdeveloped country dependent on foreign aid to feed its citizens.

Any national politician worth his or her salt will campaign for office on the basis of service delivery rather than cheap politicking that only traps us deeper in a quagmire of poverty, hunger and general underdevelopment.

The public must make it clear to all politicians that self-serving officials will not be tolerated.

We must demand action from our leaders, and those who cannot answer positively to this call must be consigned to the dustbin of failed politicians.

It is our hope that the entire nation will listen to the message that Dr Mugabe is preaching, so that we all unite to take Zimbabwe forward.

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