The Sunday Mail
One of Zanu-PF’s biggest shortcomings over the years since 1980 has been how it has accommodated totally useless individuals in one capacity or another even when it is clear that they add zero value to both the ruling party and the nation.
Perhaps it is an indicator of President Mugabe’s well-documented patience that people are given several chances to prove their worth.
Patience, we are told, is a virtue. But maybe it is time that this virtue is not exercised to the detriment of our development as a country.
This accommodative culture has partly contributed to the rise of complete charlatans who like to be called “shefu”, be driven around in executive cars and have doors held open for them — while they do absolutely nothing to justify all this.
That is why we end up having self-important people like Didymus Mutasa continuously spouting what even in polite circles can only be described as nonsense.
Yes, it is his constitutional right to approach any court in the land to seek redress for any imagined wrong (and the man has proved to have quite a fecund imagination!).
But to attempt to abuse these processes because of a misplaced sense of self-importance is only indicative of the lack of quality of some of the people who have held public office in Zimbabwe.
There is a pervasive and overwhelming feeling of entitlement among public officials, who forget that they are supposed to be at the service of the nation.
People like Mutasa spent so much time getting away with this “Shefu Nyathi” claptrap that they really believe that Zimbabwe owes them something. And now even when they have been discarded they still go around acting as if they are God’s gift to mankind.
The time is past due that public officials are stripped of this arrogance so that they realise that they have jobs to do and that those jobs must be done well.
Take, for instance, the curious case of the apparent aloofness of the Zanu-PF spokesperson, Cde Simon Khaya Moyo, to the whole Mutasa fiasco and its related Joice Mujuru mess.
The man is quiet, silent, mum, as if he was born without a tongue!
Cde Khaya Moyo has the responsibility of enunciating the ruling party’s position on such matters and yet retreats into a shell and acts as if all is well in paradise.
The spokesperson of a ruling party cannot be allowed to behave in such a manner and expect to continue unchallenged.
Such expectation of deferential treatment is symptomatic of that “shefu” syndrome that has killed service delivery and created false gods like Mutasa.
The ruling party spokesperson should be at the forefront of clarifying issues that affect the running and the image of an organisation that millions of Zimbabweans have entrusted to administer their country.
Maybe he is still smarting from the outcome of Zanu-PF’s December 2013 Congress at which he lost his post of National Chair.
If so, he must quickly realise that the issues affecting Zimbabwe are far bigger than his personal considerations and if he wants to hold public office he must learn to put his job first or call it quits.
And this goes for all public officials.
If self-anointed king makers and war heroes like “Shefu Nyathi” can be dropped like hot potatoes, anyone can.
The age of the “shefu” is behind us. We want to see performance!
EDITORIAL COMMENT: The age of the ‘shefu’ is over!
The Sunday Mail
One of Zanu-PF’s biggest shortcomings over the years since 1980 has been how it has accommodated totally useless individuals in one capacity or another even when it is clear that they add zero value to both the ruling party and the nation.
Perhaps it is an indicator of President Mugabe’s well-documented patience that people are given several chances to prove their worth.
Patience, we are told, is a virtue. But maybe it is time that this virtue is not exercised to the detriment of our development as a country.
This accommodative culture has partly contributed to the rise of complete charlatans who like to be called “shefu”, be driven around in executive cars and have doors held open for them — while they do absolutely nothing to justify all this.
That is why we end up having self-important people like Didymus Mutasa continuously spouting what even in polite circles can only be described as nonsense.
Yes, it is his constitutional right to approach any court in the land to seek redress for any imagined wrong (and the man has proved to have quite a fecund imagination!).
But to attempt to abuse these processes because of a misplaced sense of self-importance is only indicative of the lack of quality of some of the people who have held public office in Zimbabwe.
There is a pervasive and overwhelming feeling of entitlement among public officials, who forget that they are supposed to be at the service of the nation.
People like Mutasa spent so much time getting away with this “Shefu Nyathi” claptrap that they really believe that Zimbabwe owes them something. And now even when they have been discarded they still go around acting as if they are God’s gift to mankind.
The time is past due that public officials are stripped of this arrogance so that they realise that they have jobs to do and that those jobs must be done well.
Take, for instance, the curious case of the apparent aloofness of the Zanu-PF spokesperson, Cde Simon Khaya Moyo, to the whole Mutasa fiasco and its related Joice Mujuru mess.
The man is quiet, silent, mum, as if he was born without a tongue!
Cde Khaya Moyo has the responsibility of enunciating the ruling party’s position on such matters and yet retreats into a shell and acts as if all is well in paradise.
The spokesperson of a ruling party cannot be allowed to behave in such a manner and expect to continue unchallenged.
Such expectation of deferential treatment is symptomatic of that “shefu” syndrome that has killed service delivery and created false gods like Mutasa.
The ruling party spokesperson should be at the forefront of clarifying issues that affect the running and the image of an organisation that millions of Zimbabweans have entrusted to administer their country.
Maybe he is still smarting from the outcome of Zanu-PF’s December 2013 Congress at which he lost his post of National Chair.
If so, he must quickly realise that the issues affecting Zimbabwe are far bigger than his personal considerations and if he wants to hold public office he must learn to put his job first or call it quits.
And this goes for all public officials.
If self-anointed king makers and war heroes like “Shefu Nyathi” can be dropped like hot potatoes, anyone can.
The age of the “shefu” is behind us. We want to see performance!
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