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Pickpockets, what's that? Traffic police?

Traffic police in operation. File photo.










While reflecting upon a few issues that worry me, I suddenly realised that I am a very old and possibly wise man. The fact that I do not feel old is probably due to my mind, which tells me that I have not done what I must do to become of age.

1980 was an amazing year pregnant with promise and possibilities. I remember watching Prime Minister Mugabe giving a speech at Rufaro stadium and I was truly galvanised and proud. We had it all here. The jewel of Africa according to Julius.

We lived through an era where corrupt ministers actually committed suicide! It is difficult to envisage now but it happened; if only they knew… There were good roads in Mbare, notably Mhlanga was used by public transport easily going to the Glens and back.

Zimbabwe was actually a communist country that spent a lot more on education and health than defence. We had ZUM as an opposition political party before the boy wonder emerged from a mine and shook the political landscape to the core with MDC.

The TV used to come on at about 5pm in the evening and shutdown at 12 midnight. In 1997, people who voluntarily participated in the liberation war caused panic resulting in President Mugabe awarding 50,000 dollar gratuities to war veterans, severely impacting the Zimbabwe dollar. The Black Friday, November 14 1997, put a nail in the Zimbabwe dollar coffin and today the dollar is buried quietly possibly at National Heroes Acre.

Before it was interred, the Zimbabwe dollar left one lasting legacy. It depreciated so badly on the back of crazy government policies, one needed a plastic bag full of cash to buy a loaf of bread. The citizenry learnt new numbers then, suddenly becoming familiar with quadrillion and so forth.

For all its effects, none is more notable than the death of the pickpocket. Indeed, pickpockets died in a flash. Even after the US dollar came, it seems the pickpockets are not keen to come back. The absence of wallets on many persons does not help either.

In their place, we are celebrating a new breed of thieves; traffic police. I am yet to meet a more refined conman than those chaps. Their allegiance is first to their pocket and last to the country. I am not sure they are interested in law and order at all. In my view, never has a more glorified pickpocket existed in Zimbabwe. I have seen it all.


This article was written on 5 January 2004.

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