The Financial Gazette

From The Sidelines
with
Maggie Mzumara

Whether General Solomon Mujuru's death did or did not have criminal intent, is not yet conclusive.

  It is still to be ascertained by the ongoing inquest.  But what is already conclusively exposed and determined by the inquest proceedings thus far is the degree of malfunction and dysfunction of security and emergency services within the country. From the sidelines, it would appear that the inquest has illuminated beyond reasonable doubt the yawning gaps in the security and emergency services system.
Security lapses of police officers at the General's residence and scene of the fire; compromised functionality of fire engine tanks and general lack of resourcing in most if not all points of the chain of response to an emergency all point to a deterioration or non-existence of security and emergency services. 
To add insult to injury, then there is the curious issue of DNA samples that are collected four days after the remains of the subject are buried and results for which are only made available two and a half months after the burial!  What kind of services are these?  Whole hearted?  Half-hearted?  All defeating the purpose for which they are intended.
Question that immediately begs answers is:  If services can be this inadequate and far from satisfactory for the ruling elite in the country, then what more for the ordinary man in the street? The late General Mujuru belonged to the "royalty" of Zimbabwe if we can call it that.
In his own right he was the most decorated army general since independence.  As if that was not enough, he was also the husband of the Vice President, Joice Mujuru. Those two accolades doubly qualified him for the best service there is in the country.  Now if this is the "best" the country can provide, then the country's security and emergency services have really gone to the dogs far much more than previously presumed. If this is the "best" the country can offer, then the extent of service deterioration in the country is way lower than low. 
Then we really have no standard to talk about. If this indeed is the level of services that was at the late General's disposal then one shudders to imagine what hope there is for a rescue in a fire that breaks out to Ordinary Marwei in Dotito, LowLevel Uhini from Filabusi or Invisible Nomore of Binga?  And because this a high level case, that is why it's out in public.  What of the Regular Joes and Janes who have since extinguished and perished in silence and ‘oblivion' at the "hands" and "conscience" of an under or non-delivering service system?
That a police officer guarding some premises would neither have the knowledge nor orientation of exactly what he is guarding; that he would neither have a functional radio system nor working telephone landline let alone credit in his cellphone to communicate should a need arise is, as the Mujuru family lawyer at the inquest called it, "negligent and non-committal'.  How do you guard something or someone without preparing for any eventuality?  How do you guard someone or something and only get to know hours later that an emergency has broken out? Aren't you supposed to be the source and point of protection and prevention? How do you perform a job without the mandatory tools of the trade?  How are you sent to work without the tools?  How are you even allowed to perform (or underperform) a task without the necessary tools?
The Beatrice Police Station had no vehicle of their own to take them to the scene of the fire.  The only vehicle they had, had gone to Mvuma for repairs, the inquest heard.  They had to rely on the generosity (and expense) of neighbouring farmer to lend a vehicle for a police force on duty called to an emergency.  How does a whole police station supposed to be standing ready for any eventuality be this ill-equipped? May it be noted at this point that this is not the only police station with such a situation.  Countless of times, police stations elsewhere have asked and relied on members of the public for lifts in the course of their duty.  And this has been the situation for many years going back.
The inquest also heard that on the fateful morning of the death in a fire of the decorated General, the only vehicle the Fire Brigade headquarters in Harare had, had a leak - a leak so severe in fact that water ferried in it would not have reached the scene of the fire.  "We last had a normal fleet in the year 2000," Clever Mafoti, the Chief Fire Officer at the Fire Brigade HQ was quoted as saying.
So from 2000 on, the fire brigade had been functioning at what capacity?  Fifty percent?  Twenty percent?  One percent? Null capacity?  And if this can be the situation at headquarters - are there any services at all decentralised?  Closer to the people?  If that is the case, can or should we say we have any reliable fire brigade service to speak of at all?
 That a whole fire brigade would nurse a leak points to what exactly?  That the brigade cannot afford to repair the leak?  That a whole country cannot repair a leak?  Is this a lack of resources or a lack of will power?  On whose part really? Does anybody care?All of the above point to obvious lack of resourcing of necessary services.  In a country with newly discovered diamonds and all those other resources our leaders will conveniently give a rundown of when it suits, does this inadequate or non-existent resourcing mean lack of what?  Lack of prioritisation?  Lack of will power?  Lack of leadership, of governance and administration of these services? Lack of what exactly?
Does anyone care?
Had these services been in good working order, there would obviously been a significant reduction in response time and we will never know whether or not this would have helped the situation.  Had these services been in good working order, today at the inquest we would be only looking at the criminal intent or lack thereof in the death of the late general. But because of all these other failures in the long chain of response and possible rescue, we are forced to look around for liability.  The loopholes are just too many.   It is not but crimes of commission that concern, crimes of omission also call for attention.
And a malfunctioning and underperforming security and emergency service system has questions to answer.  In a well and justly-functioning justice system, no stone would be left unturned and culprits would be brought to book, but in our case in this country, the jury is still out as to whether or not the offending parties will be brought to book.  That all points indicating failure to bear expected dutiful response would be dealt with.  Will the justice system rise to the occasion?  Only time will tell.
- Maggie Mzumara is a media, communication and development specialist, who writes in her personal capacity as a social analyst. She can be contacted on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
 

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