This future, of a paralyzed state whose natural resources has been exhausted or depleted, owing to unsustainable predation, plundering and looting by the parasitic, failed zanu pf, working hand in glove with the new colonial power China, is not only bleak, depressing and nightmarish. It is sincerely beyond that. Gnashing of teeth will be child’s play. The paralyzed state, with depleted resources, especially mineral endowments will quickly transition into a failed and collapsed state. This is because the natural resources not yet depleted are the ones delaying the inevitable state failure and the consequential collapse. History, especially ancient Zimbabwean history has demonstrated time and time again that resources depletion leads to catastrophic failure, and the attendant collapse., as was the case with the Mutapa state, Mapungubwe state, and the famous Great Zimbabwe, from which the name of the now paralyzed state is derived.
The theoretically modern but now predominantly paralyzed state of Zimbabwe seems convincingly fated to suffer the same fate as that of its ancient namesake. When herds of elephants whose ivory was crucial for long distance trade was hunted down to the last one and when all the gold deposits had been depleted, the once influential and powerful ancient state of Great Zimbabwe simply succumbed to its dependence on long distance trade based on non-renewable resources. Anyone who went to school, usually those who have been voting for the resilient, vibrant and innovative opposition will tell you that, since they were taught before teachers started strikes owing to Scarfmore’s failure to appreciate their service, toil and sweat that natural resources are not only non-renewable. Once they are depleted, that is the end of the story.
It certainly is not too late, a lot can be done to salvage the situation, and put the paralyzed state on a trajectory that will enhance its capabilities and threshold to weather a crisis that is conceived by natural resources diminution. The only problem is that this salvaging is simply unrealistic as long as the parasitic, failed zanu pf retains power illegitimately. This is illegitimate power retention that has empowered the same scrounging zanu pf to mutilate the supreme law of the land, weakening it considerably, as a means to an end of fulfilling its futile one party state aspirations. These futile aspirations of the failed, illegitimate zanu pf would ensure that it is insulated from accountability, transparency and rule of law, all serves as deterrence against predation, plundering, looting for self-gain, at the expense of the people’s welfare which zanu pf has grown to be notorious for its insensitivity and deliberate unresponsiveness.
Already as it is, due to zanu pf exiling of transparency, rule of law, devolution of power, and accountability, millions of desperate Zimbabweans have left the country in droves seeking greener pastures, the majority ending in exploitative jobs, some in slavery, like the unfortunate woman who died in Oman. Because the illegitimate government formed by the pestilential zanu pf that rightly has a deficiency of political legitimacy derived from popular will, has singlehandedly destroyed the economy, service delivery deprivation and people’ welfare negligence became the norm. This prompted the mass exodus of economically active youths. But why is this being an issue, this exodus?
It is an issue because their lives are in danger in whatever country they seek economic refuge in, they risk their lives as they are not wanted, they are attacked, killed as was the case with the xenophobic South Africa, and the enslaving Oman. The argument is that if this is the case when the paralyzed state still has its natural resources, how will the situation develop when the natural resources deplete, after the country’s failure to change trajectory?