When Ruwa Is In The Dark, Evil Men Lurk In Our Streets, To Vandalise Exposed Our Transformers

By Rejoice Ngwenya
September 2024
Ruwa, Zimbabwe

ZESA – Zimbabwe’s beleaguered state-controlled electricity supply authority – habitually blurts warnings on extended load shedding due to partial ‘collapse’ of Hwange Thermal Power Station.

It’s all part of daily life in Zimbabwe – putting up with a disoriented regime too keen on impressing SADC dignitaries with expensive structural trinkets while our economy labours under a barrage of unscheduled power cuts.

I’m not mentioning pot holes, sewerage, starvation, dysfunctional public hospitals, and dry water taps. I’ll leave that to REAL politicians.

And so, after having received load shedding messages from our local ZESA team, as with tradition, I forwarded the unwelcome news to all my local WhatsApp groups. That is my job as a community Griot.

When Ruwa is in the dark, evil men lurk in our streets to vandalise exposed armoured cables or unprotected transformers. Every year, we spend hundreds of United States dollars replacing stollen copper conductors and fortifying transformers.

Our disabled economy produces retarded minds that conspire vandalism, robberies, fraud, and corruption. Poverty in Zimbabwe is award-winning, yet gold smugglers, tenderpreneurs, ministers, judges, army generals, and thousands of government directors wade in obscene state-sponsored luxury.

Whoever legitimises these voracious scoundrels requires redemption.

And there are some political desperados insisting the president deserves a third term! To be honest: these are the same knuckleheads who said Robert Mugabe must rule forever, before the dictator got jettisoned out of office with AK47s, eventually dying a miserable old man. It’s instructive.

Where ballots fail, bullets prevail. Didn’t it happen to us November 2017?

African dictators are destined for the same fate. Where ballots fail, bullets prevail. I say this without a morsel of fear. Didn’t it happen to us November 2017?

Talking about fear, according to Google, “The phrase “fear not” appears 57 times in the Old Testament of the King James Bible and 14 times in the New (Testament). It appears eight times in the Gospel of Luke, which is the most of any book, and seven times in Genesis and Isaiah.”

Here’s my take. Christians agree that God who created both universe and man foresaw humans as naturally fearful. That is why He always reminded us not to be afraid.

Thus, just below the ZESA notice, I added mine: “Due to the possible extended power outage, I suggest we organise street patrols especially around vulnerable assets.” I continued: “So guys, anyone who can help me patrol our block to protect (our ZESA) equipment tonight, kindly inbox your full name and street address.”

Silence. Not a single man responded, let alone acknowledged my message. Fear.

Zimbabwean men, especially this current ‘post-independence generation,’ are cowards. The ‘warrior spirit’ that inspired Generation-70 to obliterate Ian Smith’s white minority rule has deserted us. We men nowadays fear soldiers, police, teargas, nocturnal cable thieves, bus touts, mshika shika conductors and makorokoza.

It is a generation of weak men; men even molested by unelected gangsters yet do nothing about it. We are a generation of millions of motorists compelled by a handful of service stations to pay for expensive locally blended fuel in foreign currency. We are a generation compelled by supermarkets to take sweets and chocolates as change in place of real money.

We are a generation of men who pay for groceries in US dollars then get change in ZiG. A generation of three million people who vote for MPs and Councillors but allow only three unelected political urchins to evict them at will from Parliament and Council.

We are a generation of men who lose money to land barons and drunken village heads. A generation of men content to drive over potholes without holding Councils to account.

We are a generation of men who can only watch as crony capitalists plunder taxpayers’ money. Yes, a generation whose warrior in us has died, completely devoid of the fearless gladiator. Fear not.

Pretty soon, the unelected and unelectable will be amending our Constitution to accommodate a devious presidential third term while this generation of fearful men watches with bemused lethargy. I fear that if this generation of men had been around during the 1890s pioneer column era, those white thugs would have taken all its wives, daughters, sisters, mothers and f-bedded them, in their presence.

Lis’ jwayela kubi, makhanka. Apa hamupfuuri?

No wonder we moan why one man, ONLY one, is not liberating us from authoritarian dictatorship. One man? A generation that sees one military helicopter fly over its homes and scampers into its proverbial shack like rodents! Fear not.

“Hannibal of Carthage was considered one of the great African warriors in Africa and across the globe. Hannibal was from a family of fierce warriors with his dad, brother-in-law, and two younger siblings who were also notable combatants.

Under his regime, Hannibal led his armies in conquering most of the nations that faced the Mediterranean… According to many legends, all the Roman families lost at least one family member to the Hannibal militias in what was dubbed the world’s first great war.

https://briefly.co.za/49021-15-greatest-african-warriors-that-made-history.html

Closer to home: “Cetshwayo Ka Mpande is recognised as a true African hero owing to his victory against the British. When the Englishmen invaded Zululand with excessive force, Cetshwayo did not surrender and instead sent over 20,000 Zulu fighters.

This army over-powered the British in what was seen as the biggest opposing battles by the Africans, losing just 1000 of their warriors. At this battle, King Ka Mpande managed to kill the heir of the French throne, Prince Napoleon.

(https://briefly.co.za/49021-15-greatest-african-warriors-that-made-history.html)

Were Hannibal and Cetshwayo to resurrect today in Zimbabwe, they would send this entire generation of Zimbabwean men to herd goats. No wonder gangsters will “rule until donkeys grow horns.” We men are hiding in our smoky huts, waiting for ‘someone’ to ‘do something’ on our behalf.

Assuming God is in it, where will He start from if all Zimbabwean men are cowering under their beds? We ought to be ashamed of ourselves! It is time to draw a red line in the sand and tell the oppressors – just like uBabu’ Cetshwayo would have shouted “Lis’ jwayela kubi, makhanka. Apa hamupfuuri!”

Rejoice Ngwenya is Zimbabwe’s only Liberal Patriot. The views expressed are his. Contact him at +263772256326