By Jonathan Chando| When a small child refuses to eat food, the mother asks the child if s/he wants sweets or ice cream. The child says yes s/he does.

The mother then assures the child that s/he will get the sweets or ice cream, if s/he finishes the food on the table first.

Because of trust the child has in the mother, the child eats and finishes the food, in anticipation of the sweets or ice cream.

Sadly for the child, the sweets or ice cream never materialise for the child, because they were never there. The cycle continues every time the mother wants to feed the child with food that the child detests, until the child is old enough to know when it’s all a lie.

That is what ZANU PF has been doing to the citizens of Zimbabwe for 38 years. ZANU PF has been the mother, forcing tasteless food on the citizens (child). When the child then refused to eat the food (2000), (2002), (2008) and (2013), the mother (ZANU PF), persuaded the child (citizens) to eat after which the mother promised ice cream. After eating, the child was never given the ice cream(prosperity, rule of law and democracy).

It is a cycle that has been happening in Zimbabwean politics since 1980, where Zimbabweans have continued to be abused like children who are always promised ice cream or sweets if they eat the tasteless food.

On 24 November 2017, the same mother in the form of ZANU PF (Mnangagwa) promised a New Dispensation(ice cream) to the citizens (child). It is now apparent that there is no ice cream as promised.

I wonder when the child (Zimbabweans) will grow up to the age where s/he(they) will realise that they are being abused and tricked into eating tasteless food in promise for ice cream that never comes.

Zimbabweans were promised a list of culprits who externalised the country’s wealth, and not the bait in anticipation of ice cream (new era), and today they are given a list of institutions whose only crime was to apply for CD1s through the Reserve Bank in the course of they business. Those who actually externalise Zimbabwe’s wealth remain protected as they are ZANU PF and government officials who are still part of the status quo.

Grow up Zimbabweans and refuse to be that child who keeps being forced to eat tasteless food for the promise of non existent ice cream.

By Jonathan Chando
Lawyer, Political Analyst and Commentator on International Law and Politics.