Opinion / Columnist
We got our Independence but Mugabe stole the fruits of our independence.
19 Apr 2016 at 16:59hrs | Views
Yesterday was Independence Day in Zimbabwe.
After my scary ordeal last week I have limited myself to spending as much time as I can indoors. As a result I was able to follow discussions with so many varied perceptions on our independence.
I even managed to follow the National Celebrations live on our national broadcaster something I hardly do spending a day watching ZBC TV.
A huge majority of Zimbabweans claim that there is no Independence in Zimbabwe. Varied reasons for that are brought through, though almost all of them are flooded in emotions and some rightfully so.
Without going into the obvious reasons given, I would like to add my own perception to the Zimbabwean Independence saga.
If there is one thing that really hurts me about our country is the direct and deliberate distortion of our history because of and by people who want to build political mileage by twisting the history. An example of one shocking such distortion was by one activist who wrote a very long tale yesterday saying that Zimbabwe didn't get it's independence 36 years ago but 51 years ago when Smith made the Uniliteral Declaration of Independence.
Several of my other friends and colleagues also spent the day going over mountains insisting that in fact Zimbabwe has not gained its independence at all. On the other hand those aligned to the ruling ZANU PF party also spent the day showering praises for independence and talking as if Zimbabwe is outrightly the best run country in the world and probably the most peaceful and most developed since it's independence.
For the sake of our children and future generations, it is fact and a never will change fact that Zimbabwe attained it's independence 36 years ago on the 18th of April following a very bitter liberation struggle against the colonial forces.
Even if Tsvangirai or Biti, or Ncube or Mujuru were to wake up running government tomorrow that date will never change and shall remain independence day. Any attempted to the contrary will reveal the true patriotism of that government.
Thousands were killed in the process of attaining our hard won independence. Great heroes and heroines who selflessly gave themselves to the struggle of our independence emerged through the struggle years.
It is therefore not only wrong but also unfair to our liberators that today 36 years later we stand up and not appreciate the commitment and efforts they gave to the struggle and say Zimbabwe has not yet attained it's independence.
A fortnight ago, I attended a lecture on the life of General Lookout Masuku presented by liberation war stalwart and ZIPRA intelligence guru, Dumiso Dabengwa. He told extremely touching and quite revealing events and facts of our liberation struggle. I not alone but others too who attended the lecture had moments where eyes would glow with tears of emotions as he narrated the ordeals they went through to force the settler regime to surrender to our independence.
As a country we can only forever be thankful to those gallant Zimbabwean sons and daughters who went out to fight for the country and never at any stage belittle their efforts of that time. They players their role to the fullest and delivered to the nation. The onus was on those taking over to build on from where they left off.
The failures, marginalisation and brutalities of the ZANU PF government that took over the governance of our independent country must never be confused to render our independence valueless.
We got our independence but ZANU PF failed to deliver to us as citizens the fruits and gains that should have come with our independence.
It is like a family of an irresponsible family man who gets his wage and blows all of it before getting home and the family blames the employer for not paying the man his wage.
Blame for our current woes must be put in their proper perspective. ZANU PF simply failed to deliver to us the gains of our independence. What were our expectations when we got our independence:
1) Peace, Reconciliation and Democracy:
Coming from a long and bloody liberation struggle the first thing that ZANU should have delivered to Zimbabweans was peace and reconciliation in the country and facilitate for an open democracy.
But what did ZANU do?
In the very first election to our independence, ZANU deliberately destroyed democracy by not allowing other contesting parties and even election monitors into areas they declared no go areas using a group of their own militia which they had not demobilised.
Hardly three years into independence they unleashed Gukurahundi into the Matabeleland regions who they perceived to be a threat to their desired undemocratic one party state. The composition of the Gukurahundi army on its own declared an unwillingness to foster for national unity as the soldiers used predominantly spoke Shona and spoke ill of Ndebele people in their acts with deliberate threats of willingness to eliminate the Ndebele people.
The very first expectation of our independence that is democracy, peace and unity was therefore immediately destroyed by the government.
2) Economic prosperity and development:
As soon as a country attains it's independence it is expected that the new majority government will put it's focus on economic development. With ZANU, hardly five years into adopting "a jewel in Africa" the economy was already on a downward scale.
Today 36 years later a local currency that was amongst the top three in the world at their assumption of the country has gone extinct.
Our agriculture which not only fed Southern Africa but even complimented Europe can no longer even sustain half the country's population.
Yes we needed the land but certainly didn't want the haphazard distribution of the land that was done belatedly as a political tool to win back the confidence of the people more so the war veterans.
Nearly a third of Zimbabweans are currently living outside the country all over the world as economic refugees because of our failed economy. Those who remained in the country are faced with a 90% unemployment level that has turned everyone into a hassler for survival.
3) Freedom:
The most basic fruit of our independence which we expected was our freedom. Freedom of association, freedom of speech and all basic human rights not only declared by organisations outside us but by our very own constitution.
Zimbabweans are generally a timid population, people who are scared of their very own government and can't even stand for their rights in fear of victimisation and other dreadful consequences such as arbitrary detention, abductions, torture and even killings. No wonder we have people declaring not to be independent as they lack freedom far much more than during the settler regime.
4) Good governance:
It's extremely sad when in the process of discussing our independence you hear statements in the direction that the colonial Smith regime was better than our post independence government.
On attaining independence we all expected a government that will be accountable to the people and for the people. But it is shocking that 36 years into independence the country moved from being amongst the least corrupt in the world to amongst the most corrupt.
Everyone fights to be in political leadership particularly of the ruling party not because of the zeal to serve the people but for personal enrichment because that is where all the state resources are looted.
How do we answer the scenario that at one moment we are declared to be having 25% of the world's diamond and in an instant the diamond is nearly wiped off and we are still the poorest and nothing to show for it except huge estates for our political leaders a and a missing $15 billion dollars diamonds revenue.
5) Service delivery:
Not even a single government institution is able to deliver services to the citizens. Infrastructure and institutional development is on a negative. What we had at independence is collapsing faster than what we are setting up ourselves.
Government is battling to raise income to sustain the country and is resorting to literally scratch for cash (khiya khiya) in any small corner possible. It can't even settle it's own wage bill a thing that was never expected from government.
6) Discrimination:
ZANU mastered the divide and rule tactic to keep its government afloat. Today we live in a country where tribal hatred is the key component of our country. Ndebele and Shona speaking people are near sworn enemies all because of the terrible ZANU influence of discriminating and marginalising the Matabeleland areas and influencing Shona dominance over all other tribes in the country.
A few years into independence emerged a document known as the Grand Plan of 1979 which is directly attributed to the ZANU PF desk. Through the years, ZANU has failed to clear itself from the document nor explain how some aspects of their governance coincidentally fit in 100% to the prophesies in the Grand Plan.
As things stand we have a completely divided nation to an extent that a section of the country is demanding total cessation from the greater part of Zimbabwe because ZANU continues to fail to answer to the issues raised by the region and the coincidence of their governance system to the Grand Plan.
We may therefore as a nation urgently need to get to a stage where we unequivocally tell ZANU PF that what they are giving us is certainly not what we fought for.
We have our independence and very appreciative of its coming but just have never enjoyed the fruits of the independence because of the ZANU PF failures.
If they care as much as they claim to do about the values of independence and the liberation struggle, perhaps it's time ZANU PF comes clean and say that their was liberation and note pave way to those capable of delivering on their sacrifices.
Bekezela Maduma Fuzwayo is an independent political and social analyst based in Gwanda. This article has been extracted from his personal Facebook page. he can be contacted on bekezelamaduma@yahoo.co.uk
After my scary ordeal last week I have limited myself to spending as much time as I can indoors. As a result I was able to follow discussions with so many varied perceptions on our independence.
I even managed to follow the National Celebrations live on our national broadcaster something I hardly do spending a day watching ZBC TV.
A huge majority of Zimbabweans claim that there is no Independence in Zimbabwe. Varied reasons for that are brought through, though almost all of them are flooded in emotions and some rightfully so.
Without going into the obvious reasons given, I would like to add my own perception to the Zimbabwean Independence saga.
If there is one thing that really hurts me about our country is the direct and deliberate distortion of our history because of and by people who want to build political mileage by twisting the history. An example of one shocking such distortion was by one activist who wrote a very long tale yesterday saying that Zimbabwe didn't get it's independence 36 years ago but 51 years ago when Smith made the Uniliteral Declaration of Independence.
Several of my other friends and colleagues also spent the day going over mountains insisting that in fact Zimbabwe has not gained its independence at all. On the other hand those aligned to the ruling ZANU PF party also spent the day showering praises for independence and talking as if Zimbabwe is outrightly the best run country in the world and probably the most peaceful and most developed since it's independence.
For the sake of our children and future generations, it is fact and a never will change fact that Zimbabwe attained it's independence 36 years ago on the 18th of April following a very bitter liberation struggle against the colonial forces.
Even if Tsvangirai or Biti, or Ncube or Mujuru were to wake up running government tomorrow that date will never change and shall remain independence day. Any attempted to the contrary will reveal the true patriotism of that government.
Thousands were killed in the process of attaining our hard won independence. Great heroes and heroines who selflessly gave themselves to the struggle of our independence emerged through the struggle years.
It is therefore not only wrong but also unfair to our liberators that today 36 years later we stand up and not appreciate the commitment and efforts they gave to the struggle and say Zimbabwe has not yet attained it's independence.
A fortnight ago, I attended a lecture on the life of General Lookout Masuku presented by liberation war stalwart and ZIPRA intelligence guru, Dumiso Dabengwa. He told extremely touching and quite revealing events and facts of our liberation struggle. I not alone but others too who attended the lecture had moments where eyes would glow with tears of emotions as he narrated the ordeals they went through to force the settler regime to surrender to our independence.
As a country we can only forever be thankful to those gallant Zimbabwean sons and daughters who went out to fight for the country and never at any stage belittle their efforts of that time. They players their role to the fullest and delivered to the nation. The onus was on those taking over to build on from where they left off.
The failures, marginalisation and brutalities of the ZANU PF government that took over the governance of our independent country must never be confused to render our independence valueless.
We got our independence but ZANU PF failed to deliver to us as citizens the fruits and gains that should have come with our independence.
It is like a family of an irresponsible family man who gets his wage and blows all of it before getting home and the family blames the employer for not paying the man his wage.
Blame for our current woes must be put in their proper perspective. ZANU PF simply failed to deliver to us the gains of our independence. What were our expectations when we got our independence:
1) Peace, Reconciliation and Democracy:
Coming from a long and bloody liberation struggle the first thing that ZANU should have delivered to Zimbabweans was peace and reconciliation in the country and facilitate for an open democracy.
But what did ZANU do?
In the very first election to our independence, ZANU deliberately destroyed democracy by not allowing other contesting parties and even election monitors into areas they declared no go areas using a group of their own militia which they had not demobilised.
Hardly three years into independence they unleashed Gukurahundi into the Matabeleland regions who they perceived to be a threat to their desired undemocratic one party state. The composition of the Gukurahundi army on its own declared an unwillingness to foster for national unity as the soldiers used predominantly spoke Shona and spoke ill of Ndebele people in their acts with deliberate threats of willingness to eliminate the Ndebele people.
The very first expectation of our independence that is democracy, peace and unity was therefore immediately destroyed by the government.
2) Economic prosperity and development:
Today 36 years later a local currency that was amongst the top three in the world at their assumption of the country has gone extinct.
Our agriculture which not only fed Southern Africa but even complimented Europe can no longer even sustain half the country's population.
Yes we needed the land but certainly didn't want the haphazard distribution of the land that was done belatedly as a political tool to win back the confidence of the people more so the war veterans.
Nearly a third of Zimbabweans are currently living outside the country all over the world as economic refugees because of our failed economy. Those who remained in the country are faced with a 90% unemployment level that has turned everyone into a hassler for survival.
3) Freedom:
The most basic fruit of our independence which we expected was our freedom. Freedom of association, freedom of speech and all basic human rights not only declared by organisations outside us but by our very own constitution.
Zimbabweans are generally a timid population, people who are scared of their very own government and can't even stand for their rights in fear of victimisation and other dreadful consequences such as arbitrary detention, abductions, torture and even killings. No wonder we have people declaring not to be independent as they lack freedom far much more than during the settler regime.
4) Good governance:
It's extremely sad when in the process of discussing our independence you hear statements in the direction that the colonial Smith regime was better than our post independence government.
On attaining independence we all expected a government that will be accountable to the people and for the people. But it is shocking that 36 years into independence the country moved from being amongst the least corrupt in the world to amongst the most corrupt.
Everyone fights to be in political leadership particularly of the ruling party not because of the zeal to serve the people but for personal enrichment because that is where all the state resources are looted.
How do we answer the scenario that at one moment we are declared to be having 25% of the world's diamond and in an instant the diamond is nearly wiped off and we are still the poorest and nothing to show for it except huge estates for our political leaders a and a missing $15 billion dollars diamonds revenue.
5) Service delivery:
Not even a single government institution is able to deliver services to the citizens. Infrastructure and institutional development is on a negative. What we had at independence is collapsing faster than what we are setting up ourselves.
Government is battling to raise income to sustain the country and is resorting to literally scratch for cash (khiya khiya) in any small corner possible. It can't even settle it's own wage bill a thing that was never expected from government.
6) Discrimination:
ZANU mastered the divide and rule tactic to keep its government afloat. Today we live in a country where tribal hatred is the key component of our country. Ndebele and Shona speaking people are near sworn enemies all because of the terrible ZANU influence of discriminating and marginalising the Matabeleland areas and influencing Shona dominance over all other tribes in the country.
A few years into independence emerged a document known as the Grand Plan of 1979 which is directly attributed to the ZANU PF desk. Through the years, ZANU has failed to clear itself from the document nor explain how some aspects of their governance coincidentally fit in 100% to the prophesies in the Grand Plan.
As things stand we have a completely divided nation to an extent that a section of the country is demanding total cessation from the greater part of Zimbabwe because ZANU continues to fail to answer to the issues raised by the region and the coincidence of their governance system to the Grand Plan.
We may therefore as a nation urgently need to get to a stage where we unequivocally tell ZANU PF that what they are giving us is certainly not what we fought for.
We have our independence and very appreciative of its coming but just have never enjoyed the fruits of the independence because of the ZANU PF failures.
If they care as much as they claim to do about the values of independence and the liberation struggle, perhaps it's time ZANU PF comes clean and say that their was liberation and note pave way to those capable of delivering on their sacrifices.
Bekezela Maduma Fuzwayo is an independent political and social analyst based in Gwanda. This article has been extracted from his personal Facebook page. he can be contacted on bekezelamaduma@yahoo.co.uk
Source - Bekezela Maduma Fuzwayo
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