Zim Communist Party laments lack of progress after 38 years of independence

The Zimbabwe Communist Party has lamented lack of progress and development in the country despite the independence that was attained by the country in 1980,.

"It is to our shame that there has been no discernible improvement on the infrastructure left to us by the Rhodesians. In fact the rather old-fashioned infrastructure which we were left with in 1980 is now in tatters. There has been no appreciable increase in electricity generation. We have the same thermal power stations that we had 38 years ago and some hydro-electricity coming from Victoria Falls and the Kariba Dam completed in 1959. The Dam has developed very serious cracks which have been visible for some years, but it is only recently that a French company has been contracted to repair it - and it is a matter of speculation as to whether or not they will be able to do it before it collapses entirely," said the party.

"Our capital city, Harare and its satellite, Chitungwiza no longer have clean water. Water-borne disease outbreaks occur at frequent intervals. The once excellent National Railways of Zimbabwe has become a mess. Gone are the days when one could book an overnight sleeper and be provided with clean sheets. The one attempt at improvement was in the 1980s, when, with the help of Canada, we started buying their diesel engines rather than manufacture our own steam locomotives. This in a country with no oil but abundant coal!"

The party said only noticeable development has been in education, schools and universities have been opened which have provided Zimbabwe with the world's best educated street traders.

"Others, of course, have used their skills in other countries. This is clearly the result of having a school headmaster ruling the country for more than 37 years - a man who understood what happens in school very well but had no idea what happens to people after they have left school. The indignity of being discriminated against by people who look different and come from a different continent is now over. But at least those people for all their humiliating racial attitudes generally paid workers on the agreed day. The new boss class have now developed an attitude and a culture of paying workers whenever they feel like it. This is true in both the public and the private sectors and councils under the control of the pro-imperialist opposition are no better at treating their workers," said the party.

"People struggling to scratch a living by street trading are beaten and persecuted by police working for the interests of the petit-bourgeois élite who do not want to see their streets looking untidy. The majority of our people have become non-people - except when it comes to voting. Zimbabweans, generally, are no longer discriminated against because of their colour. But they are discriminated against because of class."

"And when we look at the history of our liberation struggle, what happened to those that lead our liberation armies - Josiah Tongogara, Lookout Masuku and Solomon Mujuru? In 1980 all celebrated the new government and the new flag - even those who had backed ZAPU, the original liberation movement, rather than those who took power - ZANU. Two years later, in 1982, an agreement was made with the apartheid government of South Africa to prevent Zimbabwe from being used as a rear base for the armed wing of the ANC of South Africa, Umkhonto we Sizwe, the ally of ZIPRA. Massacres followed in Matabeleland, Midlands and Mashonaland West. This has led to a huge rift, to deep bitterness between different ethnic groups. Although this has been the worst manifestation of tribalism, it is by no means the only one. Zimbabweans of Malawian, Mozambican or Zambian origin have been told that they are not Zimbabweans. This in a country whose leaders claim to be pan-Africanists," it added.

The party said the memory of the days of the late 1940s and early 1950s when Benjamin Burombo was able to lead the people of Bulawayo and Charles Mzingeli was able to lead the people in Salisbury have been buried by ethnic hatred.

"Then came the big sell-out. Real economic independence ended in 1991 with ESAP. For all their racism, the Rhodesians had built up an economy autonomous from outside control. For the first 11 years of Independence at least 80% of what we bought in Zimbabwe was made in Zimbabwe. The bitter truth is that it was the African ‘nationalists' and not the white settlers who bowed to the demands of the US/UK Axis when they accepted the terms of the IMF and the World Bank," said the party.

"Worse, the working-class movement created originally in opposition to ESAP became its opposite. It came under the control of Rhodesians opposed to land reform who had now reconciled to the imperialist centre. The MDC became the greatest exponents of the neo-liberal ethos. Recently we saw that with the overthrow of Robert Mugabe, the British Minister of State for African Affairs spent several days in Harare prior to Emmerson Mnangagwa becoming President. And what did the MDC Alliance do when they found that they were not included in the new government? They ran to Washington, the centre of world terrorism, to complain.

"As Communists, we are very clear that in our country, Zimbabwe, it was the working-class which started the liberation struggle when trade unionists took over the Southern Rhodesian ANC in 1957. It was the working-class and the peasants who gave their blood for liberation from colonial oppression. But rule by the Rhodies has given way to rule by the chefs whom we are expected to respect. We cannot respect those who steal our resources and do not respect us. Therefore the Zimbabwe Communist Party calls on the working-class, the peasants and the poor to unite and regain the independence for which they and their forefathers gave their lives."