Okay, hands up those of you who know someone who can coerce petroleum out of a rock? Now don't be shy, we need all the help we can get! One would hope that at election time we are voting the best possible candidate (or rather the best available) into public office. We place our confidence in their wisdom, integrity and competence as the requisites for any public officer. So I must say it came as a suprise when I read in the paper last week that the Zim government had paid some lady, a self proclaimed n'anga or spirit medium, who claimed to be able to induce diesel from a certain rock, by pointing a "sacred stick" in the hills just outside Chinhoyi town. Apparently some liquid was seen coming from the rock and it was diesel. If this turned out to be for real, then she would probably be one up on Moses, who was told to speak to a rock and water gushed out in the wilderness. But it took them a while to realise that she had sent some youths to buy diesel and then, through a series of pipes and tubes, conned the Zimbabwe Government. Payments amounting to ZW$5 Billion as well as a farm, were authorised, by cabinet ministers and the Governor of Mashonaland West. My question is: Was no one suspicious that the "ancestors" had a refinery somewhere underground? Needless to say the woman ended up in court, but a significant portion of the money was never recovered (granted we are talking about US$4100, but it's still a waste). All this could have been avoided if there was a sprinkling of common sense somewhere in their collective minds.