'Zimbabweans not yet Uhuru,' says Mzila Ndlovu

FORMER National Healing minister Moses Mzila Ndlovu yesterday said Zimbabweans had nothing to celebrate on Independence Day as the Zanu-PF government had allegedly perpetuated the uneven distribution of resources just like the former colonial masters.

Ndlovu, who now leads the opposition Alliance for National Salvation (ANSA), said Independence was just symbolic.

"It (independence) in the Zanu-PF sense is nothing, but the disappearance of white people from government offices and the rest of the mundane windfalls. It never dwells on concrete benefits that would have accrued since 1980 to the previously discriminated, oppressed, impoverished, disenfranchised and excluded by the racist regime of Ian Smith and his surrogate black puppets," he said.

Ndlovu said his party was disappointed at the way the ruling elite "has shamelessly hijacked the people's project".

"Most profound among Zanu-PF's failures is around the issue of nationhood. There is a huge gulf between Matabeleland and Mashonaland regions created by Zanu-PF that makes it impossible to talk of a Zimbabwean nation. This finds greater expression in the Gukurahundi massacres of the people of Matabeleland which adherents of Zanu-PF's ideology of tribal hatred think can be wished away," he said.

"ANSA finds it both insensitive and vulgar to expect the people of Matabeleland and the Midlands to celebrate an occasion associated with Gukurahundi since there was no Gukurahundi before 1980."

Ndlovu said as a result of Zimbabwe's skewed nationalism, Matabeleland, as a region, lacked political power that could deliver development in the region.

"The other issue of concern is the constitutionally uneven distribution of political power as well as the proceeds from the exploitation of natural resources and other economic activities which came about as a result of the attainment of independence," he said.

"The subversion of the will of the people to choose on the basis of merit who should lead this country takes away any obligation to participate in the celebration of a betrayal. The sabotage of the economy by Zanu-PF further compounds the plight of the people of Matabeleland and the Midlands who are continuously being ostracised by a corrupt regime committed to tribal discrimination."