Let's not forget what ED has done for our country

ED is not perfect.  No politician is.  In fact no one is perfect, including you or me.  But let's not forget what ED has done for our country.  
 
I'm not even going to sit here and start explaining in detal his brave role in the founding of our country. It took bravery and real sacrifice to fight like he fought in the struggle for our independence; in the battle for our liberation.  But what is more impressive, and more important to all those who intend to take part in these historic harmonised elections in the next few months, is the action ED took towards the end of last year.
 
Zimbabwe was in a rut. We were at a real low.  Countries did not want to talk to us.  Investors were not willing to do business with us.  We were stuck.
 
At home, our policemen and policewomen were the most corrupt on the continent.  We could not drive for more than a few kilometres without having to spend our hard-earned cash because of some made up transgression.  A fire extinguisher here.  A weak rear light there.  We were being abused from above and below.
 
The G40 gang who had taken over our country, led by GucciGrace herself, were simply out of control.  About the same time as the infamous 15 billion dollars (and more!) went missing, ED, perhaps the only decent member of RM's inner circle at the time, was poisoned.  We knew who was behind it.  Everyone knew who was behind it.  The lady who had no fear and had no shame.  The lady who poisoned the mind - and indeed at times it was a great mind – of the leader who brought freedom to this land.  Anyone who still believed RM was in control of his own destiny, let alone our destiny, was living in (what BBC journalist Stephen Sackur likes to call) "Alice in Wonderland".
 
So with unemployment at an all-time high, and investor confidence at an all-time low, there was simply nowhere to go.  Until ED decided to take the fate of the nation into his hands.
 
He risked his life, once again, for the sake of our second liberation.  He internalised that if big changes were not made immediately, our pariah state would actually become a failed state.  
 
He schemed and he planned, and the results are there for all to see.  A truly new dispensation was formed.  Free and fair elections were called.  A New Zimbabwe. A new era.
 
Now of course a country cannot be rebuilt in a mere few months, but change is already being felt.  Investors are swarming our country, from East to West.  We are no longer wholly dependent on China; our all-weather friend.  At our airports and in our restaurants we hear American English, British accents, Russians, Japanese, Indians and of course a lot of South Africans; they all want to take part in the New Zimbabwean dream.
 
There is hope once again on the streets.  Billions of dollars of foreign investment will lead to jobs for the masses.  The results are already tangible. Just yesterday a deal was signed which will bring another 24,000 jobs to the nation!  As the nation once again finds its feet, there is great excitement in infrastructure projects.  From power stations to roads and railways, countries and private investors are competing to fund our projects.
 
Our president is online, on social media.  Who would have thought? He actually listens to the people! He even takes to Facebook to interact, engage and communicate with the youth; even those you who don't like him one bit.
 
So while I don't expect everyone to be in love with ED, nor forget his associations of the past. I do expect that we give this man of action a chance. The man who got rid of RM and put Zimbabwe back on its feet again.  The man who brought hope and change to a country in despair.  And the man who brought the most important word back to the lexicon of the average Zimbabwean: Freedom.
 
We are free to talk.  Free to write.  Free to criticise.  Free to drive down the street without the harassment of our police.  In 1980 we were supposed to be free. For those of us not old enough to remember that feeling, let us now embrace 'Liberation Part II'.  Let us welcome the truly new dispensation.  And let us give ED, our man of action, five full years to turn this ship around, putting us firmly on the right course of freedom, development and progress.