The past few weeks have been dominated by two men, two old men to be precise, who want to shape the country’s future, but clearly with no plan.
Both war veterans, Blessed Geza and Chris Mutsvangwa have dominated the news, as they disparaged each other and reduced themselves to gossip and bar talk.
The two have something in common, they are very big on entitlement and very thin on the country’s future prospects.
One observation Mutsvangwa made was that it was comical to see Geza in military fatigue threatening an uprising at over 70 years.
On the other hand, Mutsvangwa himself was wearing a jacket emblazoned with the face of another man, a clear sign that fawning and acquiescence rather than merit are the reason for his position.
For a very young country like Zimbabwe, where the average age is 18 years, it just does not make sense that the two biggest newsmakers of the month are around 70 years.
I listened to both of them, all I got was a sense that their only claim to power is because they went to the liberation struggle.
While Mutsvangwa claims that the president did not anoint anyone and every party position is up for grabs, the reality is that he is actually the poster boy for entitlement, who thinks that going to war makes him some super citizen or something.
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None of what they were saying impressed me, it was all about power for power’s sake and nothing to do with the future of this country.
They seemed obsessed with being in political power or at least by the feeding trough.
None of them addressed how the ruinous economic situation has led to a devastating brain drain that this country may never recover from.
The country’s airports are now a hive of activity, not because of economic activity, but rather because young people are making a beeline for new opportunities out of the country.
If this country, or at least those hankering for political power, cared about young people and the future of this country, these are some of the discussions that we should be having.
I will not discuss the economy, there is barely anything to talk about, even if Mutsvangwa thinks it is booming.
If it was booming, some of our brightest minds and future prospects would not be leaving the country in droves as they are doing now.
To be fair, anyone who thinks the country’s economy is on the right track is out of touch with reality.
Social services and recreational facilities have all collapsed and these are some of the things that need to be addressed.
Instead, what we have are two old men, sneering at us and commanding us and thinking that we would do as they ordered just because they said so.
Mutsvangwa is a particular disappointment because he thinks that having an Afrikaner in the form of Elon Musk and the “Paypal mafia” with roots in South Africa’s apartheid system, near the US White House is a good thing.
I recently wrote that Zanu PF, even if the party claims to, has little to no ideological grounding and it was there for all to see with Mutsvangwa praising a racist and misogynist whose life mission is to entrench white supremacy and gut any form of equality.
If Mutsvangwa does not believe me, then he can ask Steve Bannon, an ally of US President Donald Trump and a former White House aide, who described Musk as “racist” and “truly evil”.
Mutsvangwa, like the sadist he appears to be, goes on to celebrate the gutting of the United States Agency for International Development (USAid).
USAid has been accused of some of the most heinous crimes, but for a lot of young people in Zimbabwe, it provided life-saving drugs and treatment for ailments ranging from HIV and Aids, malaria to tuberculosis.
But because Mutsvangwa and his ilk are short sighted and are happy to cut off their noses to spite their faces they celebrate the gutting of USAid regardless of what that means to young people.
For the record, the party that Mutsvangwa represents has no capacity to fill the vacuum that has been created by the shuttering of USAid at the behest of his newfound hero.
Just like Mutsvangwa, Geza has no plan for the youth. His plan is just a march to power and has shed little light on what happens next.
While an argument can be made that people did not come out to demonstrate as had been the call because they feared for their safety, another argument can be made that they stayed at home because there was clearly no vision, just a simple power grab.
What both sides did was to simply regale us with liberation struggle rhetoric, but that is simply not enough for any leader.
There is need for a clear vision, which is clearly not not there.
The mass exodus of young people from this country is symptomatic of a lack of a vision and it will continue for a long time, as long as the powers that be believe that the only qualification to be a political leader is to have fought in the struggle.
There is barely any fusion of youth and experience in political leadership, with most of the young people that we see near the echelons of power owing their presence to nepotism or patronage and, thus, adding no value.
The political elites and their hangers on may make fun of the career choices that some young people may have made, but the reality for many is that being a care worker in far flung foreign lands is infinitely better than sitting in Zimbabwe and watching Mutsvangwa rub his entitlement and arrogance in your face.
For many, the choice is simple; leave the country for better prospects or stay in Zimbabwe and be served copious amounts of propaganda that the country is on the right path yet you have no job, no tap water, no electricity and literally no prospects.
Now, most of the youth dream of just getting a passport and leaving the country because of frustration that these old men just believe because they went to war they can continue running roughshod over us.
