Sithembinkosi L Jiyane
A Nation Living on Impulse
Recklessness is quietly hollowing out Zimbabwean society. From money and health to relationships and education, impulsive decisions have become routine.
Short-term thinking is pushing families into avoidable debt, worsening preventable illnesses, and steadily eroding trust within homes and communities.
The greatest danger is how normal this behavior has become. Daily neglect, careless choices, and the constant avoidance of responsibility are piling up into a silent social crisis.
What looks like individual indiscipline is, in truth, a collective problem, one that demands urgent self-reflection, renewed discipline, and a return to long-term thinking before the damage becomes irreversible.
As 2026 dawns, Dr Misheck Ruwende, a Zimbabwean medical doctor, public health advocate, and health educator, has issued a message that is as uncomfortable as it is necessary. Delivered with brutal irony and sharp humor, his words do not console or sympathize, they confront. This is not a motivational speech. It is a mirror.
With cutting wit, Dr Ruwende exposes the everyday contradictions that define life for many Zimbabweans. People litter beside empty bins. Drivers overtake recklessly on solid white lines in underpowered vehicles. Buses packed with more than 60 passengers speed as if human lives are disposable.
“Can’t you speed-limit yourself?” he asks, reminding listeners that discipline should not exist only when police are present.
From the roads, he turns to personal responsibility, where the irony grows even sharper. Seatbelts are worn only near roadblocks, as if their purpose is to satisfy law enforcement rather than save lives.
HIV has touched almost every family, through illness, loss, or survival, yet fear of testing remains widespread. “You’ve walked thorny paths barefoot,” he mocks, “but now you’re afraid of a clinic?”
Even matters of love and emotional judgment are not spared. In one of his most scathing metaphors, Dr Ruwende remarks:
“You know she belongs to the streets, but you still walk barefoot.” The message is unmistakable, too many people knowingly walk into harm and then cry foul when consequences arrive.
Perhaps his most chilling line stretches beyond traffic rules and health choices into life itself: “There is no police officer to arrest you for going through red lights in life. It’s up to you. Unless you have a spare life.”
This is not a lecture from a podium or a sermon from a pulpit. It is a raw intervention, a demand for Zimbabweans to stop outsourcing accountability to systems, laws, and authorities while ignoring the power of everyday personal decisions.
Dr Ruwende’s message does not seek applause or agreement. It demands honesty. A new year has begun. The question is no longer whether the system must change, but whether the mindset will. This is more than irony. It is a challenge.
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