Opinion / Columnist
Will Zimbabweans ever get it right?
24 May 2014 at 13:07hrs | Views
As South Africa inaugurates its third democratically elected, President Jacob G. Zuma for his second and last term in office, Zimbabwe is still stuck with its first president from 1980 Robert G. Mugabe. Since 1980 Zambia has had five presidents, Mozambique and Botswana have had three. Malawi is on the verge of changing its fourth president in an election. But alas Zimbabwe is still stuck on the first one who has been in power for 34 years.
Winston Churchill was once quoted as saying "… you can always count on the Americans to do the right thing after they have tried everything else". My question today is, will Zimbabweans ever do the right thing and remove Robert Mugabe from the presidency who at 90 years old is not as fit as he used to be as seen by his many trips to Singapore but asingapore. At 90, frankly speaking Mugabe no longer has any new ideas to offer (assuming he ever had any in the first place, which I doubt) and is presiding over a country where all that could go wrong is going wrong.
Are Zimbabweans ever going to remove Mugabe or are they going to wait for 2024 for him to retire after finishing his second term under the new constitution? By then he will be a hundred years old and would have ruled (though I think misruled is more appropriate) for 44 years. With four years to go to the next election in Zimbabwe it seems opposition leaders have forgotten who they are supposed to be fighting and are busy tearing each other to pieces forming more and smaller parties without a clear indication as to how they intend on removing Mugabe from power.
Will opposition party leaders who I shall not name ever do the right thing of vacating their seats of power and put the interests of the country ahead of their own personal interests and stop showing Mugabe like tendencies of wanting to be life presidents? Will the so called grand coalition ever court Zanu PF moderates and work with them for change to happen? And by Zanu PF moderates I do not mean those who committed crimes against humanity like gugurahundi as I think those belong to jail but I mean those Zanu PF members who were too young in the 1980s to have had a part in that so called "moment of madness".
Will Zimbabweans ever do the right thing of creating strong institutional frameworks and move away from cult or hero worship of individuals as if those individuals are the party and the party cannot survive without said individuals? There is no easy road to democratization and am sure many Zimbabweans yearn to return to their country of birth to help rebuild it, but will those Zimbabweans in the diaspora ever do the right and go back to do the hard work of getting the country on the right path or will they forever live in hope that other people will create an environment conducive for their return?
In the 1980s ZAPU was a force to reckon with because voters in Matabeleland voted as a block for Joshua Nkomo's party. Will Matabeleland people ever do the right thing and form or rally behind one political party so their interests can be taken more seriously? The parties Matabeleland people are voting for currently are not taking them seriously as evidenced by things like census results (that claim Bulawayo's population has gone down), budget allocation, the relocation of companies to Bambazonke and government appointments. Lastly will Zimbabweans ever be brave enough to fight for their rights or will they keep on calling themselves peace loving while living in a country with no currency, no jobs and no prospects of a bright future?
Source - Nteletsha WeKezi
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