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Zim Standard Letters
Mugabe must account for the 'jewel' he has ruined
WHEN Robert Mugabe came
into power in 1980 he voluntarily proclaimed that Zimbabwe was a jewel
loaned to him and his government by the future generations who were
supposed
to get it back from them in an improved state.
Addressing a rally in 1980 Mugabe said: "Zimbabwe is a jewel being
loaned to us (government) by the future generations who should hold us
accountable if we fail to pass it over to them in an improved state."
Far from the word improved is where Zimbabwe finds itself today under
the continued misgovernance by the regime of the day characterised by
dictator****p, looting and killing.
The academic genocide which the government unleashed on 8 February
2006 continues to haunt the students at all tertiary institutions in
Zimbabwe. This was the day when the government of the day reneged on its
promise of "Education for all by the year 2000". This was a clear denial
of
education to those of a peasant family background and the poor ingeneral.
The particular day remains a black day in the history of higher and
tertiary education. This is the day when Mugabe's government decided to
commodify education, thereby making it a preserve for the elite. Several
students have dropped out of school since then whilst those who soldiered
on
find themselves between a hard rock and a hard place because of the
socio-economic and political meltdown currently obtaining in Zimbabwe.
The government, through vice-chancellors and principals, has always
reacted ruthlessly against student leaders and activists who advocate for
the restoration of normalcy in the education system in Zimbabwe.
Suspensions
and expulsions have become the order of the day as the regime tries in
vain
to stop the students' revolution in Zimbabwe.
The recent victimisation of student activists at Great Zimbabwe
University, National University of Science and Technology and the
University
of Zimbabwe goes a long way to show how the regime is prepared to
sacrifice
the voice of the voiceless for its selfish and corrupt interests.
One thing they seem not to know is that they can kill the
revolutionaries but they will never kill the revolution. Students now find
themselves concentrating more on means of survival than their core
business.
They now find themselves thinking of where they will get their next meal
and
bus fare to and from college, where they will put up for the next night
and
how they will fund-raise for typing of projects and assignments.
More painful is the state of lecturers the students throughout the
country have been receiving due to the massive exodus of qualified
lecturers
and yet the regime hibernating along Samora Machel Avenue has done nothing
to address this anomaly. Half-baked graduates, unfit for the industry,
have
been produced and they are expected to help in improving the economic,
social and political crisis of this country is confronting.
My word to Mugabe's government is that they should be aware that they
will not go unjudged and unpunished for the crimes they have committed
against the people of Zimbabwe. We will definitely hold
them accountable for failing to preserve the jewel they took over in
1980.
Zwelitini Viki
Former Information and Publicity Secretary
UZ, SRC, Harare
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