Poor registration figures in Matabeleland irking

I am going to speak a very regional message to the people of my region right now which I know when you speak you are given that dreaded tribalist tag.

I have learnt to completely ignore that tag which as Discent Collins Bajila rightfully said that most people who use it don't even know its meaning nor nature than just associating it with a Matabeleland person who stands for Matabeleland issues.

I have been looking at the latest ZEC figures of people who have registered to vote. It's very disappointing to see that Matabeleland North and South plus Bulawayo put together have only managed to register 45 000 would be voters. All other provinces have each registered way over the 45 000 figure except for one with 39 000.

Now people of Matabeleland, voter registration is not only for you to be eligible to vote in 2018. Before the 2023 elections there will be a delimitation exercise which will see the "reshuffling" of constituencies. A constituency is determined by the number of registered voters in an area.

The truth is that if we don't go and register as voters we will lose some constituencies in the delimitation exercise. Your guess is as good as mine, we will not lose constituencies into thin air, they will boost the Mashonaland region constituencies where their people are registering in numbers.

Honestly if one province in Mashonaland already has 90 000 registered voters and we have our three provinces having half the number of our people registered who will we blame in the end when we lose constituencies to them?

There is an extremely bad political message that was inflicted into us very well by I don't know who. Wherever you try to speak to our people they are quick to run out and say we are just too few compared to Shona people and will never have an impact in anything to do with the administration of the country so we must just get into a corner and continue crying. Akusebenzi.

We are just "enough" as we are and plenty enough to have our own voice heard. We are easy targets for subjectivity because we don't believe in ourselves. The day we will stand up firm and want to be counted will be the day we will know that we are indeed many, have a voice and are actually the ones that have the final say in who, how and when should this country be run.

This message being spread around into us by even some of us that people of Matabeleland should not bother registering to vote because we have no one to vote for must be viewed carefully, it's for the good of the very people who want to see us go down.

Bantu bakithi let's go out and register in our thousands. Whether you will vote or not is something else but we need to do it for our children. The next delimitation after the 2022 one will be around 2032. Me and you might no longer be there and we will have left our children with the burden of enduring limited representation and under subjection of the Mashonaland region.

Do we want to be blamed by our children over something we should have done at no cost? Whether it takes 30 minutes or 5 minutes of our time it doesn't matter. We need to retain our constituencies or get more. Someone one day will be there for our children to vote for.

Let's rise up Bantu bakithi let's go out and register sonke and stop listening to every little story told to us. Our future is in our hands not with people who come and try to tell us stories that say we are few and irrelevant. We have the numbers and we are the voice.

Sasizabulawelwani if singancedi? Bazihluphelani ngathi if singancedi?

Kucabangisise khonokho.