Dear Editor
Election time is once again on the horizon. Politicians of all sorts are clamouring to get a piece of the big cake.
Pseudo- politicians who only come during election times, and disappear after garnering zero results also sell their populist manifestos. Whether they really care about the citizenry, is the question for another day.
In Africa, most elections are run on promises that are never fulfilled once the candidate gets elected. It will no longer be morally binding to fullfil promises made before elections. A quarter of the promises can be carried out and another three quarters will be rebranded for the next coming elections.
As the norm, the opposition always put the blame on the ruling party for their shortcomings. A good case study is the current situation in Zimbabwe. The MDC or CCC run constituencies always blame the the Local Government Ministry of short-changing them. Zimbabwe National Road Authority is also blamed for poor roads in urban centres run by the opposition. The ruling Zanu Pf also takes advantage of those poor delivery services as a campaign material, that the opposition has failed their voters.
If the opposition in urban areas, have a priority on what they need to achieve with those paltry budgets. They should give the electorate a clean audit of every cent they have been given, and the constituents will know of how they are let down. It’s not always wise to tell the citizens, that the ministry is not giving us enough money. That’s when the issue of priorities come in. If the town lacks a good drainage system, pot holed roads, poor street lighting etc. Prioritize what needs to be done first with that meagre budget from the treasury and properly account for by informing the electrolate. Then if you sell the mantra, that we are not getting enough, the people will pay heed and punish the ruling party. Right now all urban areas are reeling under, poor waste management, no street lights, no potable water, no roads etc. Only corruption in Zanu Pf and CCC run constituencies tops.
If the ruling party is not giving constituencies won by the opposition enough money to run their affairs, you are also shooting yourself in the foot. Politics is a game of persuasion not ring fencing citizens to poverty. The ruling party must avoid those Gestapo tactics because the one you are hurting now, will come back to your fold, like Collins Tsvangirai, Lillian Timevous, the list is endless.
And promise what you will achieve (80% or more). The time of coercion has since lapsed. And please avoid giving opportunists like young cadres, who do not even know, when Zanu PF was formed and by whom?
Those cadres are dangerous in a progressive party as they only resort to anger as succour.
This year’s election must avoid populist manifestos. We don’t expect bullet trains, at the moment because our economy is in moribund. We need to do it the Kagame way. And ruling party don’t sell the Shabanie- Mashava, Cold Storage, Ziscosteel stories without a proper investor in place. And the opposition don’t get into elections , when VAR is against you. We don’t expect scenarios of 2018, coming back to haunt us again.
Ndini wenyu
Muvhoti mukuru asina muvha
