With the exception of the Covid-19 pandemic period which brought with it several restrictions on movement, I have been going to Zimbabwean every year since 2013. In some years, I have gone twice.
Zimbabwe is one of my most favourite countries in the world. Having been born and raised in Soweto, I have known the realities of violence and criminality. In Zimbabwe, this socialisation is far removed from my day-to-day existence.
I am able to walk around the avenues in Harare with a cellphone in my hand, without any worry about the possibility of it being violently taken from me. I am able to patronise local eateries, to park my car at Mereki and spend hours eating gango with the locals, without worrying about my car being stolen at the parking lot.
I can drive from Norton all the way to Chivhu without having to glance in my rearview mirror every two seconds to check whether or not I am being followed. Even on the narrow Masvingo Road that claims many lives every year, the only concern I have is about the potholes and slow-moving vehicles. It is not about my safety. It is not about the possibility of criminals lurking in the shadows. I love how safe I feel in Zimbabwe – how rare violent crime is there.
But there are also things about Zimbabwe that I find deeply problematic – the most significant of this being the way the society has accepted and made peace with the incompetence and corruption of the state.
In the suburbs of northern Harare, the most affluent areas in Zimbabwe, there are solar panels on rooftops and boreholes in the yards. The former is not a green energy saving initiative, but the result of the unreliability of electricity supply in the country’s capital city. The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority, known by its acronym Zesa, has been terrorising Zimbabweans for so long that many have been forced off the grid.
Water is another major challenge, so Zimbabweans have taken matters into their own hands and are digging boreholes in their yards. The problem, of course, is that this is placing a strain on aquifers and underground water. The water table is getting lower as more households source water from the ground. This is also destabilising soil particles.
While some may argue that the “let’s do it ourselves” attitude of Zimbabweans demonstrates that they are resourceful, it is dangerous precisely because it enables the government to become inefficient. The Zimbabwean government does not feel obliged or pressured to deliver even the most basic of services because it knows that its people will always make a plan, no matter how difficult or inconvenient.
It is so deplorable that even patients going to hospitals as big as Mbuya Nehanda Maternity Hospital or Parirenyatwa pass through pharmacies first, to source things like drips and medications for themselves. These are things that a public hospital or clinic should provide. But because this is not happening, people make their own plans. This is effectively allowing government to get away with not delivering services. It does not promote a culture of accountability on the part of the state.
This same trait is slowly developing in SA. More and more households are doing things for themselves that a government should provide. Communities are coming together to resolve issues that include but are not limited to the filling of potholes, because municipalities are failing to deal with these issues.
More and more, we are taking matters into our own hands. It may be a signal of our own self-reliance, but it sets parameters for the government to normalise the dereliction of duty and incompetence just like the Zanu-PF in Zimbabwe. This must worry all of us.
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