By Dr Masimba Mavaza
What kind of nation are we becoming, when the men who guard us while we sleep have no clothes to wear when we wake up?
In a revelation so painful, so humiliating, so depressing that it should make every Zimbabwean hang their head in shame, the Minister of Defence, Honourable Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, stood before the nation in Bulawayo last week and told a story that sounds like a cruel joke but is a tragic reality.
Our soldiers our sons, our brothers, our fathers the gallant men and women of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, are now forced to borrow uniforms from each other to attend national ceremonies.
Borrow. To look like soldiers.
The men who carry the flag are borrowing the fabric of that flag to cover their nakedness.
This is not just an administrative failure. This is contempt. Deep, cold, flabbergasting contempt for the army that is the first line of defence and the last line of peace.
How did we get here?
Minister Muchinguri Kashiri, with a voice heavy with pain, revealed that the Ministry is supposed to provide three sets of uniforms per soldier the bare minimum for a professional force but can only afford one. And even that one is tattered. Why? Because Treasury allocated a miserable $620 million against a bid of ZiG4 billion. A mere 25% of what is required to dress our defenders.
“Currently the ministry is failing to meet the requirement for ceremonial uniforms. Many have to borrow. This does not give us the dignity we deserve,” she lamented.
Dignity. That is the word. You have stripped our soldiers of dignity.
And it does not end with uniforms.
Our soldiers have no houses. Institutional accommodation has collapsed. They have no transport, forcing the army to hire expensive private vehicles to do national duties. They have no health services. Our brave men are sick and cannot be treated.
Barracks the sacred homes of our defenders have no water. No electricity. Because Treasury has not paid the utility bills. Imagine a soldier returning from a border patrol, his throat parched, his body tired, and there is no water to drink in his own barracks. Imagine his wife cooking in the dark because ZESA has been cut.
Is this how we treat those who would die for us?
Even our own hospital Manyame Hospital stands 97% complete for two years. 149 beds. Ready to save lives, ready to save the millions of US dollars we are wasting flying officers to India for treatment. Ready to serve not just soldiers, but the general public. But it cannot be commissioned because there is no money to equip it. The contractor has left the site, unpaid, in frustration.
Housing in Dzivaresekwa is stalled. Rehabilitation works across the country are dead.
And morale? Morale is in the trenches. Poor salaries have broken the spirit of the lion.
Minister Muchinguri-Kashiri’s lament must haunt every desk at Treasury. In a country whose mantra is “Leaving No One and No Place Behind”,the Minister of Defence herself has confirmed the most painful truth: Soldiers are being left behind.
Forgotten. Abandoned. Humiliated.
Who will guard us when the guards themselves are broken?
Who will defend the borders when the defenders cannot afford to dress?
This is not about politics. This is about patriotism. This is about national security. An army without uniforms is a nation without pride. An army without water and electricity is a nation without gratitude.
Treasury, hear us. You cannot fund everything else and forget the rifle that protects everything else. You cannot balance books on the backs of broken boots.
The soldier does not ask for much. He does not ask for a mansion. He asks for a uniform to wear with pride. He asks for water to drink. He asks for a hospital bed to heal.
Give him that dignity. Before history judges us as the generation that clothed foreign consultants in suits while our own soldiers borrowed trousers to salute our flag.
We are begging you. Remember the soldier.
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