Time for Zimbabwe to change course

The system which has been created by Mugabe and his Zanu-PF parasites is wrong and morally corrupt. It demeans the human spirit and our God given potential.

The facts are clear, the Mugabe era of victim-hood mentality and selfish political ambition at all costs cannot create a better society and so it must, sooner or later, naturally come to an end.

Niccolo Machiavelli once said "There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new system. The innovator has the enmity of all who profit by the preservation of the old system and only lukewarm defenders by those who would gain by the new system"

This remains the challenge we face in trying to change a system which has miscarried our expectations and is therefore no longer viable and yet many men and women out there continue to defend it and resist inevitable change. This of course is despite the overwhelming proof that our political and economic system cannot create a progressive democratic and inclusive society which we once dreamed of.

Most of my generation (born in the 60's) are certainly hugely disappointed at what our country has become. Zimbabwe had so much promise for us after receiving a good education and being instilled with good values from our parents. Instead, our dreams have become a nightmare which has been unleashed upon us by Mugabe and has cronies.

It is surely something we will always regret. It is therefore encouraging to see young Zimbabweans rejecting this demeaning Zanu-PF paradigm of abuse, greed, selfish ambition and non-accountability by those we would have expected to lead in order to create a better Zimbabwe. We must therefore, join strongly encourage them never to give up or be discouraged.

Our monumental error was that we left politics to struggle personalities. We venerated them for no particular reason and were naïve to expect the best from them simply because we viewed them as selfless individuals who had sacrificed their lives for our freedom and therefore had the inalienable right to preside over the creation of a new society.

To most of us Mugabe was a leader who deserved much respect, not only for challenging the colonial status quo then, but for daring to let us believe, as we still do now, that the black man had all it takes to create a better society. We were wrong about his character and abilities.

We assumed that his interests and ours were naturally aligned and therefore had no qualms in giving him all the veneration and responsibility including the necessary political power an state instruments to create the future we once imagined. That was a big mistake which we have all suffered for.

You will find that the brightest, smartest wisest and honourable amongst our generation never saw a political career as necessary. As a result, our best brains and those decent good men amongst us, have never really applied themselves to political lives. To this day, millions of Zimbabwean brains are being applied elsewhere to develop other countries and other societies at the expense of developing our nation. That is truly a tragedy.

If anything, it is important that the next generation of Zimbabweans understand that if they choose the same route as we did, our country will never change direction, but will remain under the arrest of lesser men and women who t have grown under the Zanu-PF value system or paradigm. The sad reality is that some Zimbabweans out there still actually believe that there is no alternative.

They have never seen or imagined anything better and are caught up in a vicious cycle of poverty and disempowerment which they seem to naively support. They do not know what they don't know and it is surely up to those who can imagine a better society to take the responsibility to lead and create that society. Nobody will ever create it for us.

The system which has been created by Zanu-PF is wrong and morally corrupt. It demeans the human spirit and its potential, is based on selfish ambition, theft and does not respect human dignity. It is evil and cannot create a viable and progressive society that we once imagined. That is the painful truth.

On our part, all we can really do is to continue to challenge the status quo, as we encourage and support those who will come after us to believe in themselves and to believe that our country can indeed change direction for the better.

To the youngsters of #ThisFlag, #Tajamuka, # Occupy Africa Unity Square and many others out there, my message to you is please carry on and fight for your future. True freedom will never be handed to you by anyone, especially the dictator, you must be demand it and if necessary fight for it.

Zimbabwe has all it needs to create a progressive and caring society in the future. It has all the assets and potential to be a leading nation in Africa economically. There is therefore no reason why this cannot be achievable.

The Mugabe era of victim-hood mentality and selfish political ambition at all costs cannot create a better society and so it must, sooner or later, naturally come to an end. However, t it will not just go away by itself, we must all do what we can from where we are to make it go away.

And so let us now gather our strength and courage to do what we must, there is no choice.

Another Zimbabwe is possible!

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Vince Musewe is an economist and author based in Harare. You may contact him on vtmusewe@gmail.com he writes in his personal capacity.