It could be Pliny the Roman scholar who died in AD79 who threw the curse at our continent when he observed – “There is always something new coming out of Africa”. We are one damn crazy joke. One big tragic joke. The something new in Africa started in Kenya where it was resolved that if you beat the opposition into submission you then form a unity government where real power remains with the incumbent. Now when you have done that in Kenya why not then gravitate southward and reward the magnificent efforts of one Comrade Robert Gabriel Mugabe with the same solution. So this is democracy?
At the time when we were celebrating two developments one international and the other continental – Barack Obama’s inauguration and the Ghana elections – the spineless and morally-bankrupt leaders of Southern African countries – chose to appease one of their own. No, Pliny was wrong. Africa does not surprise. It continues to betray its own with such boring predictability. But it can’t continue like this. Africans will have to demand better than this perpetual tragedy. The youth that I meet on the streets of Harare, Dakar, Johannesburg etc want a different Africa. They see a leader like Barack Obama and wonder why our leaders cannot be driven by the same value – the value of true public service. The political office is not a gravy train. It is an office to serve.
As Zimbabwe in Pictures comes back into 2009 stronger and more focused the theme of public service and accountability will be a strong feature of our work and our values. So a very tepid welcome to the strange creature that SADC has foisted on us but a warning to Mugabe and his henchmen that the people will no longer sit by and see you continue to fulfill Pliny’s prophecy.
Chris Kabwato
Publisher
- kumbirayi@gmail.com
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