They say,
show me your friend sand I will tell you what you are. Those that read the
Bible rush to to 2Corinthians 6:14. It asks, “What does righteousness and
wickedness have in common?”. That is clearly a rhetorical question. One which
does not need an answer., Why? Because there shouldn’t be any. You ask me where
this is going? Is it not obvious? When we were young and ask silly and obvious
questions, you would get spanking for seeking attention. So does the Frank one
deserve some spanking today? Hell No.
Maybe
further questions will help. Has Zanu PF been commandeered by a criminal gang? Of
course not but it is in blending with some of them. Well today we are
preaching. There was a city in Biblical times called Ramoth-Gilead. It
initially established as a city of refuge for the tribe of Gad by Moses
(Deuteronomy 4:43). Later this city was fortified and is found on the border of
Israel and Syria. It was built on a very high places and not easy to reach if
someone takes refuge in there. So when
this city was actually a city where people who committed murder would go and
hide. It was that once you hide in this city then you were home and dry.
Nothing would happen to you. It then became a culture that whoever was in this
city was basically exempt from prosecution and retribution.
Now
comrades, let us call a spade, a spade as we are accustomed to doing on this
column. Has Zanu PF unwittingly into the modern day Ramoth-Gilead for thieves?
Have we allowed ourselves to molested by criminal gangs masquerading as
businessmen? Is it an exaggeration that all members of Zimbabwean Mafioso are
now associated with our party because they perceive us as the fortress from
which they will not face the marauding legal system? Now with their impunity
they don’t even mind being exposed. Why? Because exposure is not taking their
wealth away. How can we even think of taking their wealth when some of you
leaders are being given crumbs and associating with them to provide a shield.
There are
known criminals. Some convicted by the courts. Some convicted in the court of
public opinion. Why are we sanitising these criminals by providing them with a
shade to sojourn under? Zanu PF is not a church, I get that. So we are not expecting
only sanctified people but hey, neither is it Sicily where the Italian Mob has
its habitat. We refuse to let our party be abused by people without a shred of
a revolutionary ideal in them except to steal.
Scandal
after scandal is coming out. And everyone of those people has something to do
with our party or has an associate in high places within our party. If we are
going to be in bed with these gangsters influencing government policy both the
country and the party are doomed. Some minister is reported to have just wrote some
letter and an MP and his church friend were given a contract to run public
relations for a big corporation with its own corporate communication department!
This is not an allegation because the facts are not in dispute. These are uncontested
facts. And you turn around and dispute that this is organised crime? Well if
this is not I don’t know what is. What about that one accused of externalising
$330 million? Yes, you read that one write. Maybe let me make it easy to
understand how bad this is. Zimbabwe’s health budget is $301 million only. The
whole health delivery system is less than the amount this individual is alleged
to have externalised. The tragedy again is that he is associated with top
people within our party. People are already taking bets that no matter what,
this individual will not see day in prison. You know what, I am not risking my
money on this bet. Why is this bet not a winner? Well because nobody has served
a day for corruption except professor Nherera who was then miraculously
absolved of any wrong doing. The only thing missing in our country right now is
the shooting of knees and the declaring of no-go territories. Zimbabwe is a
beautiful country and it is high time we show that crime doesn’t pay. Not to give
criminals access to the VVIP areas of all our events and envelope them in our
factions. Comrades, let me repeat speaking for the silent majority, we don’t
want our party to associate with criminals. They are damaging our brand. We are
also damaging public confidence in the institution of Police.
We now have
stories of what is clearly racketeering at very high levels. Oh come on, we
can’t let criminals operate with such impunity. We have to change this culture
of not minding who we associate with. Like Booker T said, “ associate yourself
with people of good quality.” It is better to be alone than to be in bad
company”. Let us esteem our reputation as a party. If we are clean, why are we
tolerating this dirty among us? The Bible which we have quoted in this sermon
says, the deep calleth unto the deep. Those who love to dig will find their
associates in the pits of hell. As for us the clean of Zanu PF we ask those
among us who have concordance with thieves to do us a favour. We don’t want to
be guilty by association.
Bad company corrupts good behaviour.
(First published in the People's Voice, 13-19 May 2016 Edition)
No comments:
Post a Comment