Coffee With Hailstorms and Heatwaves
If you were having coffee with me, I would welcome you to my tangle of words and offer you a selection of refreshing beverages, as long as it’s either ice-cold Mazoe Orange Crush or regular tea and instant coffee. I offered the juice first because the weather is rather too hot for tea or coffee. But there are still some who will drink their hot beverage religiously beneath the sun’s blazing rays.
The temperatures have been running consistently over 30°C (86°F), and words like heatwave, climate change and Super El Niño have been thrown around…. All I know is it feels like a bootcamp for hell or perhaps the rapture has already happened. we are the leftovers and just havent gotten the memo.
The other week, Masvingo was hit with a devastating hailstorm that seemed almost apocalyptic. There were large hailstones which, coupled with wind speeds of over 100km/h resulted in destructive projectiles.
It’s a miracle there were no fatalities, although there was extensive damage to property, infrastructure and loss of electricity and water for almost a week. The government declared it a national disaster.
If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that despite the national disaster designation, little tangible aid has made its way to common people, except for the lucky few who received grocery hampers. People have submitted invoices and quotations in hopes of getting assistance in repairing hailstorm-induced damage to their houses.
It’s now 2 weeks since the hailstorm and some households still have makeshift repairs, plastic covers and wooden boards securing windows and roofs… and stormy is weather is forecasted.
All we can hope is that it won’t be as destructive as before… These kinds of events are once in a life-time right? Right?
If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that while the Super El Niño is associated with drought conditions in southern Africa, it also contributes to unusual weather patterns, resulting in hailstorms and flooding.
Meanwhile, some suggest that the extreme weather conditions are connected to the death of the controversial businessman Wicknell Chivayo, who reportedly died in a helicopter crash that also claimed the lives of four others, including his wife, two pilots and a personal aide.
Chivayo was known for his extravagant lifestyle and gifting of cars and went by the moniker Mukuru wemazuva (Ancient of ages), which some felt was mocking God and thus his days numbered like the biblical king whose reign was brought to an end.
Other suggest that his death was like Icarus, who had flown too close to the sun, hinting at there being more than meets the eye to his demise.
Chimurenga music guru Thomas Mapfumo was billed to make two performances for Wicknell Chivayo, for a million-dollar pay-out, which some fans saw as selling out the ideals he had stood for when he used to speak truth to power and call out the corruption.
Mapfumo claims he was paid in full and will honour his obligations, although people suspect he might have said that only to save face. Social media was rife with jokes along the lines of how Thomas Mapfumo was the first person to travel for a funeral for someone who hadnt died yet.
If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that Chivayo’s death was received with mixed reactions some grieving the loss of a generous benefactor while others celebrated the death of corruption as personified by the businessmen who had access to heads of state of multiple African governments.
There was a rare display of African unity, as social media users from Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania and around Africa found common ground in discussing the death of Wicknell Chivayo, a tenderpreneur and possibly a frontman for government elites whose business dealings are shrouded in secrecy and mystery leaving imagination to fill in the gaps as to the source of his wealth.
Meanwhile, the vultures are already circling.
There’s claims that some people who received gifts are being told that they may have to return the vehicles, as they had not been fully paid, or maybe that’s just chancers seeing an opportunity to score one last payday from the estate of Chivayo.
It wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out there’s going to be dealings, money and accounts no one else is aware of, maybe an ultra-expensive watch gathering dust in a vault only known to Jacob & Co…
If you are having coffee with me I would tell you that the weather is darkening and a storm is brewing…
Whats been happening in your neck of the woods?
~B
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