Not Chosen One

Building on wetlands is a very dangerous criminal enterprise because wetlands are natural water holding and drainage systems, and once they are built over, the water has nowhere to go, leading to frequent flooding, permanent waterlogging, and rising damp in buildings. The soil in such areas is soft and unstable, which causes foundations to sink or crack over time, resulting in serious structural damage and very high maintenance costs. So all those involved in this criminal enterprise are either ignorant, criminal, or both. Destroying wetlands removes their natural function of filtering water and controlling floods, increases health risks such as cholera from stagnant water, and often creates legal, insurance, and resale problems, making such developments risky both environmentally and financially. All this water that you are seeing in this video is the result of the criminality and ignorance of building on wetlands. When the colonial government left these wetlands untouched, it was not because they did not have any use for that land. It was because they understood the danger of building on such land. They were responsible. Fast forward to 1980, and we have a ZANUPF government that allows people to build on wetlands because of corruption, criminality, greed and sheer ignorance. Instead of expanding the city, they do the most idiotic thing imaginable and build on wetlands. If you look at a city like Johannesburg, it started small and then expanded. That expansion came with employment, industries, malls, and businesses being established. Harare by now, under normal circumstances, should perhaps be halfway to Marondera going east. That would have meant that along that growth we would have industries, businesses, schools, and public enterprises, and, more importantly, a great deal being contributed to the economy through that expansion. But because the regime and its corrupt cronies are obsessed with squeezing into the small city that the colonial government left behind, there is no real expansion taking place. People end up using residential homes as offices. People end up bringing offices into areas that are not meant or zoned for offices. This is tragic. I do not know what it will take for us as black people to understand that when we do these kinds of things, we are hating ourselves, we are damaging ourselves, and we are destroying the future of our OWN children and the ability of future generations to inherit a functional city. Right now, when you get to Harare, when it rains even a little, the whole city is flooded, not just because of poor drainage, but because wetlands have been built on. Water has nowhere to go, so it floods and causes enormous problems. You cannot even drive. Imagine an investor flying into Harare and driving into the city only for their car to be submerged in water. This is basic common sense. It should be common sense not only to the ruling elites in ZANUPF, but to every Zimbabwean. Even those who are building on these wetlands are damaging themselves. They are destroying their own future and that of their children for a quick buck, motivated by greed. It makes no sense whatsoever. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to understand that what the government is doing is criminal, ignorant, and that it will cost generations to come. The irony of this video is that it was produced by the Environmental Management Authority, EMA, the very institution that should be ensuring that these things do not happen. Yet it is the same authority that neglects its duty and allows them to happen. It is the same authority that has been infiltrated by corrupt businessmen masquerading as land and housing developers, who pay kickbacks and are then allowed to build on wetlands. It makes us look profoundly irresponsible and foolish. When future generations look back at these episodes, they will wonder what kind of people we were, people so greedy and so driven by money that we chose it over a sustainable environment in which people can live in peace without constantly worrying about flash floods. The amount of property lost to these floods is staggering. Yet it is a small group of men, and some women, who are making money from this illegality and criminality, becoming filthy rich without any sense of community or responsibility. They continue to do these things in order to make even more corrupt money. These are multimillionaires. They are reckless. They do not care about today. They do not care about the poor, because it is the poor who are forced to bear the brunt of this. Look at Zengeza and Budiriro. These are poor communities, yet they are the ones who suffer most from these illegalities that are taking place in our country. I appeal to all Zimbabweans, regardless of political party or ideology, to think about the future of your grandchildren who are yet to be born, and the future of your great grandchildren who are yet to be born. Do you want to be remembered as cruel, criminal, fraudulent people who did not care about the future of those who came after you? Is that the kind of memory you want to leave? Do you want future generations to say that the post war, post liberation generation was selfish, self centred, corrupt, and did not care about what came after them? Is that how you want to be remembered? That is how we are going to be remembered if we continue on this path, as a senseless, greedy, corrupt generation that allowed this to happen. This is sad. Let us think about the future. Let us think about the legacy we are going to leave and how we are going to be remembered. Do we really want to continue destroying our country and be remembered as selfish, destructive people? Are we so stupid that we do not understand the most basic concept of what wetlands are? Are we so idiotic that we cannot see that we are actively harming ourselves by building properties on top of what should be a living ecosystem that protects our suburbs from flooding? Are we really that irresponsible as Zimbabweans? Is it truly that hard to understand? Do we have to be so primitive and so backward that we end up destroying ourselves, destroying our capital city, just so a few men can make money, while we also destroy the future of our children, and then turn around and claim that we are patriots? What kind of patriotism destroys its own environment, the very place where its own people are supposed to live? That is not patriotism. That is idiocy.