While you were voting...

I want to tell you a story about something that happened in the streets of Harare today, ironically while citizens were exercising your democratic right to vote.

The law in Zimbabwe requires that for a minor to travel out of the country they need to have an affidavit signed by both their parents agreeing with their child's travel plans. Standard operating procedure to ensure that no one runs away with anyones children. It is the law and despite being an inconvenience, particularly for parents who are not on talking terms, it is the law and it must be observed.

The story goes like this, Ruvimbo was planning a trip to Australia with her nephew, with their consent, but unfortunately in all her preparations she forgot about the affidavit. She didn't mean to forget, she is a 100% law abiding citizen, it was just an oversight and unfortunately it was brought to her attention the afternoon before they were set to depart. Ruvimbo was in Harare and her sister and brother in law were all the way in Victoria Falls. There was no way the documents could be prepared and sent to Ruvimbo before her flight at 6am.

After making a number of frantic calls trying to find a solution to her dilemma, Ruvimbo was advised that if she visited a certain commissioner of oaths office in the city centre he would commission whatever piece of paper she placed on his desk for a small fee of $20. Desperate and worried, Ruvimbo visited this commissioner and completed 2 affidavits, one as her sister and the other one as her brother in law AND THIS COMMISSIONER OF OATHS signed and stamped them both. Never mind that she did not have copies of the id’s of her sister and brother in law at the time of this transaction, never mind that he made absolutely no effort to confirm with the child’s parents that they had sanctioned this trip. For all he knew for $20 he had just allowed a psychotic sister or a bitter ex to take a child of the country without the knowledge of his parents. His only concern was that he was $20 richer. One can only guess what other documents he has commissioned for a song.

The point of telling this story is not to expose this particular commissioner of oaths because we all know that there are worse crimes being committed in our beautiful streets everyday. The point is to highlight that despite all the election expectations that the nation of Zimbabwe is carrying, the ordinary Citizen carries, most of the responsibility of bringing this great nation back to order. The small brides that we request or offer to pay in order to avoid procedure, the litter we so casually throw outside our car windows, the hospital bills that we are walking away from guiltless, the church funds that we abuse,  the magistrates that we offer golden handshakes to let us go on fines where we should have been locked up, these and all the other small inconsequential acts that we commit each and everyday, those are our responsibility before they become the responsibility of the Government. We may argue that we behave this way as a result of the conditions that the Government has created but our integrity and principles will always be are our own. In as much as we are a product of our environment, our environment is a product of our actions. We have in our numbers the ability to drive the nation in the direction we dream about and so often discuss amongst ourselves.

The Former President of Zimbabwe’s ‘Iwe neni tine basa’ statement sums this up perfectly, you and i have work to do. The results of the elections may affect this or that, here and there but You and I have a role to play in the building of our Nation.

Asante Sana...