Anti-sanctions march a wake-up call for Mnangagwa

Published: 28 October 2019
THERE is palpable anger in the country against President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his inept government.

People are bitter that their standard of living has plummeted to laughable levels in the past two years since Mnangagwa came into power via a military-civilian supported putsch against the late former strongman, Robert Mugabe.

The economic situation is getting worse by the day and it appears the country is on auto-pilot. Prices of basic goods and services are beyond the reach of many. Power blackouts of up to 18 hours and fuel shortages have constrained the operations of the few companies still in existence.

What is worrying is that Mnangagwa's government seems to have no inkling on how to resolve the myriad problems the country is enduring. Hollow policies and statements of intent, at times camouflaged as strategies, are pontificated as the panacea to the diseased economy.

The Zimbabwe is open for business mantra no longer makes sense as the country is slowly becoming closed for business due to disastrous policy inertia and outright incompetence. The level of incompetency is staggering!

Last Friday's anti-sanctions march in the capital terribly exposed Mnangagwa. The people of Zimbabwe used the day to protest against poor governance and failure to extricate the country from its economic quagmire. The people simply did not turn up at the 60 000-seater National Sports Stadium.

At maximum there were about 10 000 people at the giant stadium despite that the state had made available buses throughout the country to transport citizens

to Harare for the march. The turnout showed that the citizens are angry about the state of affairs in the country and cannot continue to stomach the nonsense being spewed by their government.

When Mnangagwa assumed power, he made a commitment that despite the embargoes he would turn around the economy. He was categorical that with or without sanctions Zimbabwe would prosper under his leadership.

He promised change and a new way of governance, but so far there is nothing to show that the country will ever emerge from the quagmire. Instead, the country is slowly and surely sliding back to Mugabeism, which was characterised by gross human rights abuses and dictatorship.

The only difference is that it appears Zimbabweans have awakened from a deep slumber and no longer swallow hook, line and sinker government social engineering.

On Friday, they sent an unequivocal message that gone are the days of blindly attending useless marches and rallies. The snub must have been a wake-up call to Mnangagwa not to take people for granted.

People need food on the table, not tales. If the situation in the country does not change for the better in the near future, the danger is apparent that the people will horse-kick ED again.
- dailynews
Tags: Mnangagwa,

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