Editorial Comment: Learning to serve rather than to rule

10 Aug, 2014 - 06:08 0 Views

The Sunday Mail

President Mugabe is angry. And rightly so.

The shambolic preparations for this weekend’s Zanu-PF Youth League Conference were totally inexcusable, and not just from a logistical point of view.

The failure to ensure food and transport for delegates by the Central Committee indicates a very serious problem within the ruling party.

It seems officials are more content to plot political intrigue rather than get on with the actual work of administration.

This is something that not only affects the party but the entire country as such attitudes spill into public offices.

Zimbabweans, it would appear, are very adept at playing politics but fall far short when it comes to shouldering the responsibilities that come with political victory.

Factional battles and plots preoccupy the minds of too many people in leadership positions at the expense of service delivery and the effects of this show in the lethargic pace at which national duty is performed by those whom we task to occupy certain offices.

Very often, we hear people in commuter omnibuses, at workplaces and other public and social gatherings saying President Mugabe is a good man who is let done by those around him.

There is a belief that too few officials put in the effort and passion expected of them and reflective of the hard work that the President puts into all that he does.

On Friday, President Mugabe issued a stark warning to these party officials who are more interested in their Machiavellian plots than they are in getting a job done properly.

“I am seeing all that is happening. But when it comes to Congress don’t cry . . . I cannot have a Central Committee or even a Politburo which is that inept,” he said.

For Zimbabwe to progress, it needs a ruling party that appreciates that the people vote for it to serve — not to merely rule.

Yes, there are ministers and bureaucrats that the public sees and acknowledges are doing a good job in very trying times.

But there are far too many in the ranks of the leadership who think that the people of this country owe them a living. We do not!

Rather, we have certain minimum performance expectations of anyone in public office as it is our taxes that are paying them.

There is no way the Zimbabwe Agenda for Socio-Economic Transformation (and we wonder how many of them have actually read and understood the blueprint) can contribute to national development and growth when it is being administered by leaders who cannot hire buses and arrange meals for delegates attending a conference whose date was set a long time ago.

Zim-Asset’s success lies not only in availability of financial resources. It requires men and women who work hard with the full knowledge that they are serving a nation. And when they properly do the jobs that are expected of them, there will be no need for factional plotting because the people will see who is best suited towards leading them.

In that regard, serving the people is the most ideal way of angling for leadership, not this scheming and back-biting that we are seeing even as people go without food.

We will say it again, Zanu-PF should focus more on serving than on simply ruling.

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