FOR many years now Zimbabwe has not been able to provide an environment that is conducive for the proper upbringing of children.
The country is experiencing political and economic turmoil where only the strongest survive. As expected, children have borne the worst brunt due to the power differential imposed by their weak minds and frail statures.
The unwritten pecking order forces the majority of children to compete for bread crumbs in their daily struggles for survival.
Unfortunately, bread crumbs do not fall off that often in Zimbabwe. This means there is never enough of even the nutritionally valueless leftovers for the young ones. All this is due to the suicidal political and economic path our country is steering along.
As the economic outlook continues to be bleak, images of thin, emaciated, weak, languid and lethargic children foraging for food in dangerous and unhygienic places will become part of our chequered legacy.
In hindsight, some people may attribute this grim prognosis to the lewd bedroom activities that result in more children being born. In actual fact, blame should be put squarely on the skewed boardroom activities of our political leadership.
The culpability of the people in this travesty is that they have allowed the political leadership to continue ruining the children’s future.
Zimbabweans appear to be complicit in the murder of their children by brazenly remaining entangled in this sadistic tango with the oppressive regime. It is because of cowardice that children will continue to post sub-human outcomes where it concerns their health and welfare.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
As it is, there is an urgent need to liberate the children from the claws of this antisocial political behemoth. The political dispensation has shackled our vulnerable children.
These are our children; the children of normal, down to earth hard working Zimbabwean people. Our children are being treated as if they were products of a lesser blood who rightly deserve all the misfortunes befalling them.
Children in this generation, their children and their grandchildren may continue to reel in this curse of misfortune as long as the current generation normalises suffering.
These are innocent children who cannot survive on this meaningless political rhetoric. They are young humans who require food, shelter, security and any other privileges their birthright bestows upon them.
Children should not be consigned to obscurity in the guise of disposing of troubled souls. The country cannot afford one troubled soul; let alone millions.
The government is to blame for this. Parents can only do so much to help alleviate the plight of their children. Responsible parents leave their homes for long periods of time to search of food for their young ones.
The country cannot be proud of absent fathers and mothers who are forced to cross treacherous national boundaries to seek sustenance for their children.
Children need their parents all the time yet they are left in the care of equally destitute relatives. Children do not know why there is progressively less food on the table each day.
More importantly, they wonder why their parents would want to spend many years in xenophobic, racist and exploitative countries instead of being at home with them. It is sad that children survive like orphans.
Poor children born in artificial bondage; they do not understand that selfish politicians have messed up their lives. Some do not understand why they should be beggars on the inclement streets of this unkind world.
Some streets of major towns are teaming with young troops of skilful beggars who beg for anything to eat. Life on the streets has taught them how to be tough, rough and enterprising. Not that there are no street beggars in major cities of the world!
Zimbabweans should not take solace from being as bad as the rest of the world, especially when it concerns the welfare of children. Zimbabwean children deserve better.
Whereas politicians are not responsible for the birth of the street kids, they are fully responsible for the reprehensible state they are in. Politicians are certainly guilty of turning young souls into unworthy citizens through their stupid approach to governance.
A country like Zimbabwe should not be governed like Svosve village where village idiots are well-positioned to provide counsel to the village head.
Zimbabwe’s current reliance on village politics has walked our children straight into the valley of the shadow of death. The country’s policies are responsible for forcibly walking the tots towards the eerie valley where they find themselves languishing without an end to their plight. Our national policies have led to the destruction of the seeds of future generations.
The current intellectual and material deprivation of children is a wicked ploy to make sure there will be no suitable people to post reasonable leadership challenges and break the dominance of the current political establishment in future.
Our children are being politically neutered through pervasive deprivation. Should we continue enduring the slaughter of our children by inconsiderate leaders?
Masola waDabudabu is a social commentator
