Thinking too much

We have a local word in these parts: ‘kufungisisa.’ Literally in the Shona language it means ‘thinking too much.’ But it is also the accepted word for the condition we know as depression.

In these torrid economic times, everyone seems to be thinking too much except the fat cats with their accumulated wealth and their impregnable protection from answering to corruption.

A mere visit to the shops causes a severe bout of thinking too much. The endless lies,  deceit and lunacy likewise. We try to ban the use of jerry cans in petrol queues to stop hoarding without thinking how generators, pumps and in situ engines can be filled. The ban is then rescinded in our typical flip-flop fashion.

Our savings are intact and the bond note is still 1:1, they say …  All lies. Retailers are charging anything between 2.50:1 and 5:1 on swipe or eccocash for the US price.

Suddenly we have untold riches in gas and oil discovered in Muzarabani. But alas, while there are signs of it there it will take up to two years and millions of dollars of exploratory drilling to confirm the find. Yes, people were hoping to find oil, cooking oil, that is, in the shops …

It’s hard to keep up with all the flip-flops  going on. The economy is on the rebound, they say, and that is why we have fuel queues – everyone is eager to get a piece of the action and needs transport to do so. Really? 

We have denials that selfish cartels are running the fuel industry – the boss of Sakunda fuel,  partnered with the massive Singapore-registered minerals and energy conglomerate Trafigura, is the true el capo of the fuel mafia. No, we are told, its not Kuda Tagwirei after all, but someone known as JPM. Those happen to be initials of John Panonetsa Mangudya, the Reserve Bank governor. Both men are said to be among the richest in Zimbabwe, the governor having made his fortune in the motor industry and commercial banking.

The truth about mafia dons, wherever they are and whoever they are, is that they don’t care a damn for ordinary folk while accumulating their power and riches. Their love of money and luxury cars is all engrossing.

And now “a certain professor” is no longer calling the shots at the state media, to quote the editor in chief of The Herald. Phew, that’s a relief though it hasn’t improved those organs. And now from exile a chief of spin, Professor Jonathan Moyo, has admitted that David Coltart was never in the Selous Scouts and that he made it up all along. 

So it won’t do for us to start thinking, also, about Mr Trump’s ravings,  Mr Erdogan’s self-righteous indignation over the slaughter of Saudi journalist Jamal Kashoggi when he has more than 200 journalists in jail in Turkey or about the countless infants starving to death in Yemen because of air strikes by the Saudi-led US-backed war machine.