Of Zimbabwe’s armed robberies, Government propaganda and distracting the public from the real Robbery – that is the plunder of state resources

In a country where:

• One can pass the airport with 6KGs of gold in a handbag and still argue that they carried the wrong handbag.
• Where military people can be accused of buying million-dollar homes and rent them out to the state without shame and consequence.
• Where millions of Covid funds can be plundered and no one is held accountable.
• Where hoodlums can plunder a whole power generating company and still be able to win the cases in court.
• Where ‘white collar crime’ is celebrated as “being connected; entrepreneurial and innovative.”
• Where a whole judiciary and prosecution can implement “catch and release policies” without shame.
• Where senior government officials plunder resources through junkets, tenders and no one can raise a finger.
• Where tenderpreneuring criminals dressed in suits are acquitted because of lack of evidence.

One would wonder how then it is possible that cases of armed robbers who conduct such heinous activities can be caught within hours of committing the crime and the same investigators cannot catch the ones plundering taxpayers money.

It is because:

• The money is theirs and they cannot fathom even losing a cent to other rogue thieves (matsotsi haagerane). Whatever modicum of industry is there in Zimbabwe is owned by them and thus the money is theirs.
• The idea of propagating propaganda that they are there for the people and the country is secure is in full swing. There is a desperate bid to show the people that they are in charge. There is an armed robbery, you give chase, shoot and kill the accused and the citizenry claps for you. This is what the people want to hear and see. The authorities are powerful but this power is only useful to them because they do not want to lose their money. It will seem as if they are doing it for the people but it is for their own good. The BENEVOLENT DICTATOR strategy is in full swing here.
• The idea is to instill fear in the citizen. Instill so much fear in the people that BIG BROTHER is watching all the time and has so much force that no one can think of committing crimes against them. This explains the extrajudicial killings of the robbers etc. No one condones crime especially terrorist like armed robberies like the one sin SA but the way it is done on this side leaves a lot of questions to be answered. One could even go further to ask whether these people who are robbing and the ones that then catch them, do not know each other. It is a joke.
• For a government that is willfully destroying the education system, they know that crime and violent crime is inevitable. Thus, the need to fight back – but for how long this can continue as a strategy to fight crime is not known.

So let us not fool each other through this propaganda in the state media that the nation and state is secure and that it is fighting crime to maintain order in the country. The real robberies that need to be fought are the ones being committed in the mining, wildlife and natural resources sectors including the public services such as health, education, water, roads by people who are related and known to the State and its handlers. With a fair distribution of resources, a proper function of the banks, removal of arbitrage with forex reserves and other vile state assisted machinations, one can bet that these robberies will be a thing of the past.

All this preying on the gullibility of a hungry and desperate citizen is just a puerile misreading, misunderstanding and wrong application of Machiavelli’s tactics by the People of the People.