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Stephen Mpofu
Hooray, hooray to voices of empowerment carried on radio waves the past few days and which have the potential to unite and empower Zimbabweans for development on various national fronts to take our country a step further towards a brave new future for all.

To begin with, reports to the effect that more new community radio stations are to be set up in various parts of the country will no doubt catalyse development in the rural areas in the absence of mass circulation indigenous language newspapers to deliver and saturate government policies in areas where the majority of Zimbabweans live and on whom the former colonial regime of those without knees thumbed their long noses development wise.

It is therefore to be hoped that those additional community radio stations will be voices that unite   rural folk for government policies delivered to them to serve as a fillip for speeding up developmental initiatives there.

But, of course, there is a proviso here and it is that those hired to run community radio stations must not be inverted patriots who are susceptible to pandering to tribal or to machinations of imperialists and their local political lackeys – or to both those activities opposed to  the one destiny,  one Zimbabwe moto – thereby weakening our people so that they do not pull together as a span of oxen and donkeys which is most likely to leave banks when ploughing our land to plant the seed of unity and national development.

What is more, the success of devolution, or deputisation of central government power by rural authorities in particular, requires that there be no roadblocks such as political divisions and ethnic contradictions in order for it to achieve its intended developmental goals.

Add to the above news about plans to set up magistrates’ courts in various parts of Zimbabwe where these do not exist at present.

With the recruitment of new magistrates now reportedly under way, the courts should be seen as Government’s voice warning criminals that their days are definitely numbered with the long arm of the law poised after them.

In remote parts of our country the delivery of justice is sometimes delayed due to the absence of nearby courts to administer it on offenders and in the process chill the spines of potential criminals who will now be aware that they cannot break the law and escape punishment with impunity.

This pen is convinced that by setting up more courts where they do not exist, our government seriously desires to reverse the bromide to the effect that “justice delayed is justice denied”.

So those who are always wont to reap through criminal activity must be warned that the long arm of the law is being stretched to reach out for them so that those outlaws may receive their just deserts from the new courts for them to languish in the shade.

At this time in point residents in some urban areas, including Bulawayo, are experiencing an upsurge in criminal activity involving, among other things, thefts of electricity copper wires, resulting in blackouts, robberies and house break-ins all of which require coordination between police and residents to bring them, to an end.

Just a few days ago, homes along Murchison street in Bulawayo’s Killarney suburb reported break-ins, and failed attempts to break into one particular house, with thefts of various items including “legs” of old beds discarded outside homes which residents believe the thieves will melt the metal for sale; otherwise there will be no point in taking them away.

Here, as already stated in this discourse above, there is a need for a voice to unite residents for them to work with the police in clamping down on the criminals in point, some of whom probably come from neighbouring states where many unemployed people live off criminal activities.

In this pen’s opinion if neighbourhood watch committees are set up in suburbs repeatedly targeted by criminals to work jointly with the police, will go a long way in serving with a pulverising blow to those who reap where they did not sow.

Joint patrols at night by residents and the police – with emergency phones on which residents may call on sighting suspicious characters in their neighbourhoods – will certainly go a long way in dealing a lethal blow to those breaking the law with impunity in various parts of country especially during lockdowns caused by covid-19 with many people out of employment or unable to earn more from businesses impacted by the coronavirus.

The Government’s initiatives to develop this country socially and economically has gone a gear up and no negative activity should be allowed to revert that gear back to neutral.