NEED FOR CHANGE IN 2018

2017 hasn’t been so much of a good year in my country. Our nation has been going through a serious economic crisis. This has resulted in high corruption and crime rates. I heard and went through certain events that made me realise how bad the situation was. These events were various thefts, people paying to be employed, people paying to get driver’s licences, just to mention a few.
I personally got robbed twice in 3 months last year. The first time it was in March, I got in town to deliver some perfumes to a friend since I am in the perfume business. Being someone who had a lot to do under her daily schedule, I was slightly late for my appointment so I was scared to miss my customer hence had to find transport to take me to Fourth street where I was supposed to meet my friend. I boardered the so called ‘mushika-shika’ cars that ferry people from Market Square to Fourth Street in Harare. In these cars people are packed like sacks of maize so you will be squashed, they are not so comfy. I opened my bag got my wallet out and paid the fare and put it back in the bag. Tragedy struck when I dropped of at Eastgate Shopping Mall, I noticed my bag was open and my precious wallet was nowhere to be found. This was as soon as the car had drove off. I tried to follow the car but it was all in vain. I sadly walked to my friend’s office and told her that I had been robbed, she kindly consoled me and gave me busfare to take me back home. I lost $10 cash, my national ID, driver’s licence, bank and business cards and my spare cellphone battery. When I got home and told people that I had been robbed , they were not surprised for I had to be told that its now a norm for people to be robbed that way in those cars. Funny thing is nothing was being done by whoever was in authority to stop the robberies. I was encouraged to get a police report which I did in faith that I would recover my identity particulars but up to this day I never recovered any.

Two months down the line as I was in the CBD again another tragedy struck. I went to my business partner’s office so that we could go get some stuff that we needed for our business. Like always I left my belongings in her office and carried my wallet. We left her laptop on the table and my cellphone was connected to it charging. My red MK hand bag which I had borrowed from a friend was behind her office desk. The hour that we spent in town had them thugs breaking into the office and they took the laptop, phone and handbag. Inside my handbag was my passport which left me without any identity particular except for the birth certificate which I securely kept at home. My business partner had to return to the office first. When I got there, I asked for my phone as I could not see it on the desk only to have my business partner sadly responding, ‘I just got in and found things as they are now…’. There was the USB cable on the desk and no laptop, no phone and the handbag all gone. We rushed to the nearest police station which is Harare Central. Yoo it was fully packed there so we had to wait for almost two hours to be served. The police officer who served us wrote the statement  and never bothered to give us someone to take to the scene of crime but they were saying it had been a series of theft of that nature offlately. We had to push to have someone go check the scene in hope that they would get finger prints of the culprit and we would recover our goods. After a tiresome procedure we finally went back with a CID who investigated the area but the system they use is not what I anticipated. I thought we had some machines that would detect finger prints as seen on movies but this side they splash powders around surfaces and use some tape to get the prints. Honestly this is just some old fashioned way of carrying out investigations considering how far we are with technology now. I never got to recover all I lost again but it was fortunate for my friend as she recovered her laptop. The suspected thief was caught and remanded in prison, went to court , denied the accusations and was let free. It has not been easy to have such criminals punished in this country, some say they work hand in hand with the police. I don’t know how far true it is, but many of these cases have been let go just like that unless you have money to pay the police to do their job but that would be a loss as you have to use money equivalent to what you lost to get it back. It had been such painful moments in my life, losing  my valuables and thinking of how much I needed to get them back. My prayer is our economy stabilises and theft rates may decrease.
I never believed that people can actually pay to get employed until a good friend of mine shared with me her story. To me its something I have always found unethical and always criticised it but for some reason I had to understand her. It is true that desperate moments calls for desparate measures. She being one of those unfortunate who graduated in this era of economic instability characterised by high unemployment rates, it had been normal that getting a job is about who you know and not what you know or you had to pay that person in the system to secure a job. Sometime in June a friend told her about this job opportunity and did not clarify clearly the terms to which to get it. She sent through her CVs as she needed the job since it had been three years of hustling without being formally employed after she had her first degree. The job requirements were merely 5 O’level passes. Being degreed and having another executive course she had to alter the CV to suit the criterion. Two weeks down the line she got a call for the interview at 11 am and was being asked to attend it at 1330pm that same day. She prepared and rushed to the interview, got interviewed and told that she would receive a call before day end if she was successful. She made it and was called for the second phase of product knowlegde since it was some marketing job. They were ten of them who made it and got through orientation and all. Back home she had gladly told family and friends that she got the job. The next thing the friend now told her she had to pay, her worst nightmare. She asked how much was needed and was referred to the person she had to pay to. They discussed the issue with the person only to be told that it is the HR who needs the money and that they thought she knew it. She innocently told her that she thought the interviews were enough and she got so many whatsapp messages of explanations. Torn between what to do next since she personally didn’t have the money, she told her father because they needed $80 from her as soon as possible. She even consulted her Pastor who told her to tell the person straight up that she would do no such thing. Deep down she felt she must do that but for some reason she was scared. How fear makes us do wrong, she was scared to hurt the friend who introduced the job to her as she believed it was all in good faith to help her. When she told her father that she had been asked to pay for the job, the father simply told her that, ‘ndoZimbabwe yacho hapana zvekuzviita.’ That was it he asked for the ecocash number of the person responsible and transferred the money.

 Yes she paid for the job and she has never loved it and the fact that a lot of people are doing that in silence because they have no option. Some are even going to the extent of sleeping with the bosses to get that job. This pains me a lot and it has to come to an end. I hope in this new era with  a new President it shall come to an end and justice shall prevail. A lot of  people have taken advantage of the situation and manipulating other people.  The worst part is most of these things have been normalised. It is difficult to get a driver’s licence without paying a bribe. Even when you good you just have to pay because if you don’t you will fail. When I got my licence four years ago, I was just convinced that if  I don’t pay I would not get it so I never bothered not to pay. I just told myself everyone is doing it so why cant I? After I heard testimonies of people who did it straight, I now understand how we accept bad things and allow them to be normal to us. As a nation lets desist from corruption for the person who initiates and the person who complies to corruptive actions, you both are guilty. May we all be more wiser and stand on the right side.  I am one person who have learnt through experience and will not allow my hard earned money to be sucked through corruptive actions ever again. I would rather take the longest way rather than pay for something I know I can just get freely.  One thing I know for certain is justice shall truly prevail some day.