by Taona Moto
SOMETIMES things really appear to be so, so gloom in Zimbabwe that one is tempted to believe those that say the whole nonsense called life is not worth all the effort and sacrifice.
In the case of Zimbabwe, for the past decade or so nothing has been predictable with any degree of certainty… the only thing that one can be certain about since the onset of the devil-kissed land reform programme is that there would always not be enough for us to feed on year in year out. Everything else—both the bad and the good—is never certain.
We live life the way it should be lived… a day each time. But sometimes the uncertainty about where the country is really going becomes so painful to endure that the temptation to join those that have made good their escape is too riveting. If only we could know for sure that tomorrow would bring…!
Well, the moment life becomes so predictable …when that element of mystery is taken away and we all know forehand what the future holds in store for us, and then the whole excitement about life disappears. The reason we are always eager to make the step to the next day is because we are curious to discover what is hidden from us by tomorrow, and tomorrow we make another step, and another one and life becomes, for some, the long journey that it is.
I am one person who is so curious about the future of this country that my prayer is always to be around when the protracted madness finally comes to an end. One thing that is certain in life is that everything comes to an end. It is just a question of time before this becomes a reality. It is that time that a person like myself would want to witness.
I am just curious to see if Robert Mugabe would run for presidency again in 2018… and possibly again in 2023 when he is 99 years old. Or what would happen to his wife, Grace, when ZANU-PF finally destroys itself, as it should.
Given a choice, I personally would not want to miss such a day.
Just what a day without Robert Mugabe can start and end like is something that a majority of Zimbabweans have not known, and therefore appear so impossible so much that some have resigned even from imagining, let alone thinking of it.
It is that day I am looking forward to.
One can’t be more curious than even wondering whether there would come a point in life when Zimbabweans would look back and say Robert Mugabe was a better leader than those that would have eventually come after him.
What gives one hope is that all the things that are happening in ZANU-PF and the country today appear unimaginable a few years—and sometimes months—ago.
Even as recent as early 2008, who would have imagined that one day Morgan Tsvangirai and Mugabe would ever share not just power, but even a cup of coffee, together?
Who would have thought it possible that Mugabe’s government would even consider, let alone agree to, returning some white commercial farmers to the farms, as the government is doing now?
Who would have thought one day all-powerful State Security minister Didymus Mutasa would be another nobody scared to death for his own life?
Who would have thought it possible that Grace Mugabe would become so powerful as to get Joice Mujuru fired from the post of Vice President?
Who would have thought that the maize that Temba Mliswa was planting at the end of last year would end up feeding Itai Dzamara’s family? Or that the same Mliswa and Jabulani Sibanda would be addressing the same gathering with Morgan Tsvangirai and other high-raking MDC-T officials… the same way they did at the prayer meeting for Dzamara that took place at the weekend.
Such is life. Everyday brings with it something unexpected. So why should it be so impossible to think of a bright, sunny day, when Zimbabwe would be free of the curse called Robert Mugabe? I hope I won’t be misunderstood to be wishing Mugabe’s life ill, although it is true that I can’t stand one more day with him in his official position.
I know I am not alone in waiting for that moment.
