We look up to the MDC Alliance

After successfully submitting my doctoral disquisition in October 2019, I thought of taking a three-month break as I waited for my examiners' feedback. This meant travelling to South Africa where my wife and children had been for the duration of my studies. My presence in South Africa also made it possible for us to travel to Zimbabwe for the festive period, returning immediately after the year 2020 had begun. At that point, none of us had any idea that we would be separated from each other for more than year, as I returned to my Australian base where I was due to complete my postgraduate studies in April.

Plans were afoot for family reunification around mid-2020 but all that had to be reviewed countless times in view of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that continues to ravage the world up to this very day. For the avoidance of doubt, it has not been easy for us as a family, especially in view of our son who was born in August. Yes, he was born in my absence and I am trying hard connecting with him online. Unlike his sisters who can talk and express themselves, the same cannot be said of my son due to his infantile stages of development. Thus, I cannot quite form in my mind a lucid manner of expressing how you all must be feeling at present. Having experienced the difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic firsthand, I know in painful detail how despondent we all are.

Some of us are losing multiple family members while others are struggling to care for their sick relatives. It is even worrying to come to terms with the fact that some of our relatives and friends are acquiring iatrogenic and nosocomial infections in hospitals, where their safety and security should be guaranteed. The Zimbabwean state media reports that the COVID-19 vaccine will be distributed in February. Judging by the looting of COVID-19 funds in 2020, we are worried whether the said vaccine will be accessible to the Zimbabwean poor who are victims of the excesses of the Zanu PF regime.

Apart from grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, the year 2020 saw serious human rights abuses against political opponents in several countries, including Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe even made it to the top ten list of human rights violators in the world. That is just how sad things have become in Zimbabwe, albeit three years after the late Robert Mugabe's fall from grace. Members of the opposition and journalists are routinely victimised by the Zanu PF regime and we have serious concerns about the partiality of our judicial officers. Instead of hating evil and loving good, our judicial officers are on Zanu PF's payroll as they are extremely failing to maintain justice in our courts. The courts are now being used to punish vocal critics of the Harare regime. Through abuse of the courts and the entire judicial system through what some commentators have called lawfare, we have witnessed the dismemberment of the MDC Alliance to privilege the Zanu PF surrogate, MDC-T.

Questionably and in direct violation of legal and constitutional principles, several MDC Alliance MPs and councillors were recalled by the MDC-T in 2020, thereby leaving many constituencies unrepresented. Against all odds, the MDC-T December 2020 congress demonstrated that there is only one serious opposition political party in Zimbabwe, the MDC Alliance. In the absence of guileless leadership in Zimbabwe and given the cluelessness of the Zimbabwean regime in handling the political and economic crisis bedevilling the country, many Zimbabweans have inherent faith in the ability of the MDC Alliance to extricate them from moral and political decadence.

We are already aware that to whom much is given, much more is expected. Millions of Zimbabweans have suffered and continue to suffer for supporting and believing in the MDC, since its formation in September 1999. It is high time the MDC Alliance became more responsible with its time, knowledge, and talents to benefit the oppressed people of Zimbabwe. We have heard enough speeches and it is time we began fighting in earnest. The struggle for a free, just, and democratic Zimbabwe will not be achieved by speeches alone, much more is required. We have seen the regime's desperation, and it is ready to do anything to achieve its ends to annihilate a strong opposition in Zimbabwe.

Like Mugabe before him, Emmerson Mnangagwa is incompetent and brutal in his rule. That he chose to be on holiday in the middle of the pandemic is quite telling. He is not accountable to anyone because he knows no one voted for him. He does as he pleases because he considers Zimbabwe to be his personal fiefdom. We must overcome and subdue him. His evil rule needs to be vehemently resisted and the world must know what is going on in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe needs to be back on the world map and that is only possible if the MDC Alliance provides Zimbabweans with the much-needed leadership. In a country like Zimbabwe, citizens will not just lead themselves as they prefer organised and knowledgeable political leadership. This is where the MDC Alliance comes in. Will you rise to the occasion? Only time will tell. But remember, you cannot take the confidence of the common people for granted. As Confucius observed, "… hunger has been the lot of all men, but a people that no longer trusts its rulers is lost indeed". For the suffering people of Zimbabwe, 2021 gives us the opportunity to "approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). May God help Zimbabwe. The struggle continues unabated!