The Sunday News
PRESIDENT Mugabe has always been a great advocate of the need for people to change the mindset which was instilled during the pre-independence era when almost everyone’s wish was to secure a job after their secondary or tertiary education.
The colonisers instilled this mentality because they wanted people to work for them and they wanted the conveyor belt to continue churning out the cheap labour while they enjoyed the huge profits.
So tactful were the colonisers that they even created a situation where the indigenous black people started seeing employment as an inheritance issue which must be passed from one generation to another.
In many mines, farms and industries it was common for fathers or mothers to facilitate that their sons or daughters take over their jobs once they retired.
Even before retiring, some parents saw it as an obligation to ensure that they facilitated that their children secure jobs in the same companies or farms they were working at.
In some cases three generations would occupy the same position at the same company.
Our fathers and forefathers left legacies at many companies but only as workers and nothing more.
Whites were clever too, often giving these workers flashy names like “bas’boy”, “spanner boy” among others which some of these workers misinterpreted as some sort of recognition when in fact they were meant to make you work even much harder.
Unfortunately even after independence, this mentality has lived on and may go on for some time.
The country’s institutions of higher learning are still pre-occupied with producing the “best worker” which every company must queue to employ.
Thirty-five years after independence, most people still value being employed as the pinnacle of success.
They dream of working for certain companies and never dream of starting something that can rival the same companies they want to work for.
Maybe the question we must ask ourselves is how many people have made it in life by simply working for other people.
There are very few, that is, if they are there at all.
The majority have wasted away while working for others and all what they have to show are tales of their working days.
We must know that those who own companies do not employ people so that the workers can get rich. Never!
They simply employ you to make money for them while paying you a small fraction of their profits so that you have the energy to come back the next day and work again.
Most salaries even today are more like rations — just to keep you alive and with enough energy to come back tomorrow and make more money for them.
In a few instances they slightly adjust the living wages so that you can buy a small car or bicycle or even a small house to make sure that you do not think too much about the gap that exists between them and you.
As they adjust the small salaries, they make you think it’s a sign of appreciating your efforts when in fact it is just the same tactic to ensure you continuously focus on making money for them.
That is capitalism, it is never about making the worker rich nor even respecting their rights.
It is just about the capitalist making money and more money.
It is about extracting efficiency from the worker so that they can put more effort in ensuring maximum production for the sake of the employer’s pocket.
If the worker is old or sick or even dies, you simply replace him with another within a blink of an eye and move on to make more money.
The Government has tried to break this mentality but from the look of things there is still a long way to go.
Even at kindergarten, kids always foresee themselves as doctors, pilots, journalists, and teachers but rarely as businesspeople or owners of big companies.
There is nothing wrong with being a worker but there is everything wrong when everyone expects to be employed while waiting for outsiders to come and create the employment for us.
At 35, it is time the country especially born frees, take a leading role in breaking this colonial mentality.
Yes Zimbabweans can be big employers and company owners. While it can never be celebrated that a number of companies in Zimbabwe have closed in the past years, it has also managed to bring the other side of our people.
Most people who lost jobs in many companies have not just sat down and mourned about when their former companies will re-open.
They have gone on to form small businesses which are now their source of livelihoods.
Some might want to view this as a sign of company closures and economic challengesv — yes to some extent but it has also brought the entrepreneurship skills that many were suppressing by waking up every morning to work for the crumbs the big companies were throwing at them.
Suddenly some people are beginning to regret why they have been working all along without starting their own businesses.
We might not be doing it at the expected capitalist level but we are showing that we have the ability to break the ice.
What is now needed is to co-ordinate some of these businesses to form organised and big companies.
Even at corporate level, there are what are called mergers. What the people need now is to consolidate their small businesses into organised companies.
They need to join hands with colleagues with similar small businesses. I am sure small plus small plus small will eventually make something big.
Government too needs to create the right environment to ensure that our people, especially the youths start thinking of projects that can be grown into big companies.
Universities too, must shift from producing the best worker to producing the best all-rounder, a worker and a businessperson.
Born frees can take a leading role in changing the country’s economy. Our fathers fought for the independence of the country that we will celebrate on Saturday but I think they will be happy if they see us putting the benefits of this independence to good use. Let us move on and start showing that it is 35 YEARS after we gained the right to rule ourselves.
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