GULUVA was honestly and thoroughly horrified the other day while watching a news item on SABC-TV on the recent strike by Zimbabwean pilots that threatened to "finish off" the little that was left of that country's aviation business.

The footage showed a rather disinterested and dishevelled man, presumably a senior executive of Zimbabwe Airlines, sitting behind a rickety and antiquated desk in an office that was badly in need of paint.

The desk was sagging under mountains of paper. Behind the man lay piles and piles of files and folders that went all the way up to the roof.

The man seemed bored while incoherently giving the aviation authority's side of the story to the TV interviewer.

The cameras later took TV viewers to the so-called Harare International Airport, which looked more like a fowl run than that country's most strategic and important point of entry, a gateway to a once beautiful African country.

Guluva could not believe that these pictures were shot in the 21st century: the era of Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, MXit, YouTube, GPS, iPod and so on.

He wonders if people there even know what a *.pdf file is, let alone a blog.

Well, that's what happens when you zanuficate your country. You will be forever locked in a time warp.

It's terrifying to note that this is the road that the well-heeled Woodwork Boy wants South Africa to take.

Lesson for the Woodwork Boy

Speaking of zanufication, what are the other telltale signs that show you that your country has been or is in the process of being zanuficated?

Well, when your leaders stop using their brains to tackle challenges that clearly need well-constructed strategies and well-developed programmes of action.

Last week a Harare court heard how, at the height of Zimbabwe's crippling fuel shortages in 2007, a traditional healer hoodwinked top ministers in President Robert Mugabe's government into believing she could, believe it or not, miraculously procure diesel fuel from a rock.

The ministers were so convinced that the healer had divine powers that they gave her £1,7million (a whopping R11,9million), a farm, an armed guard and food. Of course, the "miracle" later proved to be a prank and the gullible ministers and their equally naïve bureaucrats were left with egg all over their faces.

The traditional healer, curiously named Nomatter Tagarira, was sentenced to 39 months in jail for defrauding the government and "supplying wrong information".

Is the Woodwork Boy listening?

ONSIDE: Guluva would like to congratulate Benjamin Baloyi on obtaining an LLB degree through the University of South Africa while serving a lengthy jail term for a "taxi-related offence".

Guluva cannot think of a better way a criminal can repay society. It's a pity that Baloyi's family did not attend the graduation ceremony to share in his moment of joy.

OFFSIDE: According to reports, battle-scarred struggle icon and Ain't Seen Nothing Yet member of Parliament Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has been bunking Parliament for "months" now, ostensibly because she believes she serves people better by being among them rather than sitting in Parliament debating issues about MPs' housing, income and food.

Guluva won't begrudge Madikizela-Mandela such thoughtfulness. But would it not be equally wise for the "mother of the nation" to donate the R800000-a-year-salary she earns as an MP to the nation?

E-mail Guluva on: thatha.guluva.com