It's My Vote!

A colleague in academia responded to my article on this platform titled 'Whither Zimbabwe?' in which I lamented our collective lethargy and responsibility for the myriad of challenges that we are currently facing as a nation. I had pointed out that it is time for us to introspect and to play a meaningful role in changing Zimbabwe's political and socio-economic landscape and to stop this narrow thinking that the panacea to our problems is a coalition pact between opposition parties or a change of leadership. History has shown us that we have embarked on this mind boggling, self-destructive path of voting people into power whose only interest is to enrich themselves not to improve the welfare of the electorate. Instead of dedicating their time in political office to initiate projects that promote development, our leaders spend most of their time fighting each other in factional wars and in witch hunting exercises. Their only interest is to prolong their tenure in political office and to protect their loot by whatever means.

How then do we protect ourselves from this crop of leadership which is corrupt, morally bankrupt, and does not care about the plight of the electorate? This strategist colleague of mine proposed that we start a movement called 'It's My Vote'-a non-partisan, independent platform that will profile candidates aspiring for political office.  I protested my hesitancy to be part of yet another failed project but changed my mind after he articulated the objectives of such a platform. Aspiring candidates must expect to be invited to this platform to articulate their proposed programs of action to address underdevelopment, poverty and service delivery challenges in their constituencies. They must show that they are conversant with social and economic challenges of the electorate and that they are committed to public service. Those seeking re-election must address their constituencies about programs that they initiated during their term in office, challenges that they encountered in spearheading such programs, and success stories. Let us make 2018 a turning point in our history and exercise our voting rights wisely. Let us vote for deserving candidates regardless of their political affiliation. Let the weak and corrupt candidates be a liability to their parties and not to the nation.
Let us boldly declare that 2018 will not be remembered as a year for clowns and corrupt people in our local, provincial and national government. It's My Vote-I will use it wisely!

Mthokozisi Nyathi is passionate about human rights & social justice advocacy and is a 2016-2017 Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow (Law & Human Rights) at American University, Washington College of Law.