Is Zimbabwe the definition of a loot-o-cracy?

Editorial Comment
2012 I wrote an article that was instructive about what is going on in Zimbabwe today. Without claiming to be a prophet, the signs were there for all to see

IN 2012 I wrote an article that was instructive about what is going on in Zimbabwe today. Without claiming to be a prophet, the signs were there for all to see.

Looting of state resources has taken root at all levels and is seen as a normal state of affairs.

There are a lot of things that we will never understand. If we knew all of life’s secrets, we would hasten the end of the world due to our selfish nature. It is with such glaring impunity that some individuals abuse their stations in office for self-enrichment. They do not care as to what their actions will lead to.

Zimbabwe is a well-endowed country with unfathomable mineral riches. Wealth that would easily remove us from the rut we are in. That is if the revenue were properly channelled to government. Assuming of course that the monies would be secure than end up in some fat cat’s pockets.

A group of well-connected self-centred individuals have robbed the nation blind. As we marvel at their ill-gotten wealth they have the gall to announce that they were not born poor. What cheek!

There is nothing as treasonous as for such people to personalise state resources while working to perpetuate the crisis in order to cover up for this travesty.

Air Zimbabwe is a pale shadow of its former self. It should have been sold long ago. Those that defend its existence claim that this would be akin to giving away the family jewels. They must have a crooked image of what family jewels look like.

The national airline, if one may call it, has gone below the status of a rural chicken bus. I remains one of life’s mysteries why none of their planes have not dropped out off the sky. Is it because of the fact that it takes 120 people to service a single Air Zimbabwe plane?

Our consolation, perhaps, is that at its worst the airline came short of allowing passengers to enter the cabin with goats, chickens and bags of grain like they do in some West African states. Air Zimbabwe has become a metaphor for failure. Like the dodo, the bird that could not fly, the airline is bound to become extinct if drastic measures to arrest the rot are not implemented.

From the mid-eighties Zimbabwe has had the knack of creating monstrosities of state enterprises that are more of gravy trains for cronies than anything else. It’s difficult not to conclude that these have been schemes to siphon state funds. Those that immediately come to mind include the National Oil Corporation of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) or the Zimbabwe National Road Agency (Zinara) which is supposed to assist in the construction and maintenance of the national road network.

What roads, you may ask. Anyone who has driven on Zimbabwe’s roads will tell you that they are among the worst on the continent. In most parts of the country, the roads are simply impassable while in some they simply do not exist.

The potholes that are so common in most urban roads have become the butt of jokes and the stuff folklore is made of. The state of our highways has become something of a national crisis since they are the major cause of numerous fatalities.

It then begs the question, what the hell is Zinara doing? I remember a time when the mere existence of a ministry in charge of roads and transport was all we needed to ensure that the road network was well maintained. We now question the logic of creating a whole new entity whose first act was to purchase a shiny new fleet of cars for its executives. That’s before we could smell the bitumen!

The tolls levied on the highways are supposed to go into the coffers of Zinara and then used to fix the roads. The first indication of the direction the toll funds were taking was two Zinara officials who were caught with their hands in the till to the tune of a million dollars. A million! You can feed a whole province with that kind of money.

Another mis-creation was what was then known as the National Oil Corporation of Zimbabwe. NOCZIM, despite clear evidence that we are yet to strike oil any time soon, was shoved down our throats by the powers that be.

It had the dubious distinction of creating the worst fuel shortage this country has ever experienced. That was before it was embarrassingly terminated and reconstituted. The difference with the former is just a question of semantics, replacing the word ‘corporation’ with “company” in the name.

Predictably, corruption was the order of the day on this gravy train. At the height of the shortages, panic turned to desperation as very prominent politicians were dispatched to the mountains to seek ancestral intervention.

If images of barefoot leaders gazing at pure diesel gushing out of a rock are accurate, then that alone should explain why Zimbabwe is in the mess we are in.

Just come to think of it, all these state entities with weird acronyms like Zinara, NOCZIM, Zimra or AIRZIM are giving us little except nasty indigestion. That’s what I wrote then.

Lenox Mhlanga is a social commentator