From Regimented Berlin to Chaotic Harare Rejoice Ngwenya, Jus Touched Down, 10 August 2014 Touching down at the Harare International Airport from Frankfurt Main is like a giant leap from civilization to the Stone Age! The wide idle spaces, an eerie silence and semi-darkness leaves me overwhelmed with a profound sense of self-resignation. Then I get home only to once again be confronted with the familiar ‘no electricity’ ghost? This ‘back-to-real-life’ situation all but seals my fate as a direct beneficiary of ZANU.PF’s caveman mentality. If only Mr. Robert Mugabe and his dysfunctional psychomotor cabinet would learn about standards of good governance during their multi-million dollar escapades to developed countries, I would not have to sound like a ‘boot licker’ of Western Imperial Capitalism! They surely can learn. They have one degree or another, don’t they? For my experience in Berlin, it was not so much about how the Germans have blended 18th Century architectural splendor with modern day high-definition graphical innovation. I confess. The arched bridges over dreamy canals, cobble stoned pavements and palatial courtyards of San Soucci did take me back in time. However, how Germans emerged from post-war destruction to being the best-industrialised and democratised country in Europe has a lot to do with the paradigm of time management and functional, precision systems. In that country, everything is measured against time. Keeping time is a national obsession, even for politicians and street cleaners. A colleague and I experimented by waiting at a bus stop to see how punctual a thirteen minutes past something bus would arrive. No prize for guessing, the bus did arrive on the dot! Our meetings with business, politicians, broadcasters and tour guides were timed to the minute. If anything, it is we who kept our impatient German hosts waiting! It made me sick – I mean Zimbabwean time keeping. My conclusion is that having inherited the legacy of British time keeping, because of ZANU.PF’s governance mediocrity, we are now fully blown victims of shameless ineptitude. The mentality of plunder and insensitivity accumulated over three decades of authoritarian, benevolent dictatorship has taught us that mediocrity is not punishable. That is why we are, thirty years something after independence, still poorer than Rhodesians. The same reason even an MDC-T controlled Harare City Council majors in mediocrity. They are, like you, and me victims of ZANU.PF’s infectious incompetence. The chaos and the corruption that causes traffic jams, poisonous water in our taps and primitive littering are all to do with ZANU.PF’s failure to portray and practice a sense of good governance. If only they could put a mere one tenth of the effort they exert to rig elections, Harare could be anyway near Berlin – including an artificial canal along Julius Nyerere Way! No wonder the Zimbabwe Diaspora is content with ‘enforced residency’ in Europe. Once you get used to German-type efficiency, anything close to ZANU.PF emits a stench, perhaps even as disgusting as raw sewage from an Ebola treatment centre. Let me stop here before my outrage boils over and simply say – let us learn from the Germans!
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 17:05:44 +0000
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