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Perspective, Stephen Mpofu
At the crack of dawn tomorrow Zimbabweans will be ushered into an eve-of-election year. But will this nation make 2018 a watershed year or, better still an electoral sieve with the fine stuff settling down in the hearts of the masses to revivify them, and with the chaff being destined to political dustbins?

But can it surely be said with a high degree of certainty, for reasons that this pen will attempt to outline, that the conduct of some if not many leaders in the preceding years after the 2013 general elections will persuade the generality of the Zimbabwean nation not to treat the forthcoming elections as “business as usual”?

First, there are those who have over the years conveniently strolled along political sideways all the while stealing glances at children littering the broad way into the future and pushing bellies distended with malnutrition, but with not a hint of compassion touching the stone hearts of the self-anointed leaders because their own offspring frolic on surfeited bellies.

[Consider the so-called street children in urban centres, for instance,  who subsist on crumbs thrown into rubbish bins by the haves, and wear rags that frail in the wind, providing no warmth for the poor souls in bitter winters. Consider also the kid’s counterparts in some homes in rural areas where food, water, clothing or education are not within easy reach for them either.]

Yet it is no exaggeration to suggest that leaders who pry their trade in both setups look askance when confronted with these scenarios; otherwise there would be pronounced interventions to end curses of want by both children and their poor parents, particularly in the communal lands.

Secondly there are those leaders who prance through the unflinching faith and trust reposed in them by the electorate while busily feathering their nests.

If leaders who dip their deft fingers in the kitty of their employer or political party in what is otherwise known as corruption, are not also a blatant betrayal of those who put them in leadership positions of responsibility and expect them to deliver on the assignments as servants of the people, their actual bosses, then this pen wonders what actually amounts to betrayal?

Thirdly there are those individuals or political parties that rend the air across transnational borders with  façade-democratic and fake patriotic rhetoric courting imperialist powers in particular for money “to help our suffering people”.

However, when bankrolled, some if not the bulk of the funding is usually stashed away in bank accounts with little, if not none of the funding being channelled to benefit ordinary people for whom the money is allegedly sought in the first place.

That kind of political chicanery and personal political aggrandisement have gone on in post 2013 election years so that Kilimanjaro’s and Inyangani’s still remains towering obstacles instead of being levelled out to pave way for the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Social and Economic Transformation to truly get underway and deliver this nation into a brave new future for all.

That some councils today seem to work to themselves rather than to an incumbent government tasked with ensuring that service delivery takes place and is seen to take place without let or hindrance by individual employees or by political parties administering the local authorities in point is a monumental anomaly that can only be resolved by putting the right people in national positions of responsibility to drive social and economic development programmes with indefatigable commitment and loyalty to the electorate.

This obviously suggests that leaders in all aspects of Zimbabwean life pass the litmus test of their commitment to new year and political resolutions by delivering on their promises to improve the welfare of this nation, whether the weather be good, whether the weather be bad.

Finally, as has happened in previous run ups to general and other elections across the country, Zimbabweans will no doubt witness a similar charade in the period before the 2018 elections with power seekers approaching them and brandishing tongues dipped in sugar solution as they desperately hunt for the voters’ trump card in the ballot boxes.

The spine of this discourse is that leaders, political and otherwise, should be driven by a single-hearted devotion in carrying out their responsibilities in order for the motherland to become a shining example of unity and development and with that, the envy of our neighbours.

In retrospect, therefore, Zimbabwean voters should play the role of muck-raker in the forthcoming elections to ensure that as much as is humanly possible only those people with impeccable credentials of industry, patriotism, and love for this beautiful country are put under yoke to take this nation into post modernity with our heads raised and our faces smiling.