Zimbabwe will not enjoy democratic rule until 'old guard has passed' rings true!

"Zimbabwe is a country rich in both natural and human potential. Once the resentments of the current old guard have passed and democratic governance can be established, U.S. - Zimbabwe relations can become what they have never been: harmonious and mutually beneficial," concluded the Right Honourable US Representative Smith to the House.

Representative Smith gave the House a summary of Zimbabwe's turbulent history from the time of Cecil John Rhodes to how the nation has lost hope under the present tyrannical rule. The tyrannical rule after independence was not supposed to happen.

It was President Mugabe's autocratic tendencies that have forced Zanu-PF to lose focus. Instead of pursuing the path of freedom, justice and human rights the party had aspired for during the war of independence, the party has become obsessed with securing absolute political power and maintaining at all cost! President Mugabe did not ruthless stifle all democratic debate and competition in the opposition but also did so within his own party Zanu-PF and hence the reason no one in Zanu-PF stopped him taking the nation down this ruinous route.

President Mugabe has ruled the nation and Zanu-PF with an iron fist.

The Right Honourable Representative Smith's analysis was spot on except for one thing; he left out the role MDC has played in the last 15 years. Zimbabwe has had many opportunities to end the Zanu-PF dictatorship but the best chances have come thick and fast in the last 15 years. Sadly MDC under the leadership of Morgan Tsvangirai has wasted all the chances.

If the truth be told the Americans and many others in the West have played a shameful role in the wasted chances to bring meaningful change in Zimbabwe. It was the West who heaped its support on the corrupt and incompetent Tsvangirai and MDC. It was in the dying years of the GNU that the West finally realized that Tsvangirai was a dead loser that they finally backed off; but it was too late.

The people of Zimbabwe, for whom the penny of MDC corruption and incompetence did not dropped until President had blatantly rigged the July 2013 elections, were shocked and disappointed with the elections results. They had wholeheartedly (and naively) believed MDC's promise that the elections would be free and fair and so when the opposite happened it was like a hailstorm out of the clear blue sky. Every hailstone found its mark and the people were left physical and emotional crashed!

Since the July 2013 MDC leaders have been falling on their swords like the Biblical King Saul! The recall by Tsvangirai of the 21 MPs and Senators from the breakaway MDC-Renewal only to give14 of these seats as a gift to Zanu-PF in this week's by-elections was the last straw. The few Zimbabweans who had stubbornly refused to see Tsvangirai and his MDC friends for they corrupt and incompetent individuals they are were too finally forced to take off the blinkers.

The 10 June 2015 by-elections were notable for the low voter turnout; as little as 5% of the potential voters bothered to vote many constituencies. This is a very worrying development because it takes us back to the voter apathy of 1980s and 1990s.

When Zimbabweans become apathetic they do not only stop voting but, worse still, they completely switch-off from all meaningful democratic political discourse.

President Mugabe had an easy political run in the 1980s and 1990s because rigging elections with low voter turnout is child's play. It was only when the people finally realized in 2000 and beyond that if they wanted to end the Zanu-PF dictatorship they had to vote even when at the risk on life and limb that President Mugabe's hold on power was threatened. So by reverting to the old days of voter apathy the people are not helping their cause but undermining.

This is not the time to give up but to pose and review what went wrong and learn from those mistakes. The biggest mistake the people have made was that they were naïve and gullible to have put their trust and faith in a village idiot like Tsvangirai. The biggest mistake they are making now is to switch-off from politics because this is a self-defeating futile move that will strengthen the dictatorship and not end it!

Representative Smith's prediction that Zimbabwe will have to wait until President Mugabe and his generation of ruthless thugs go before there can be a realistic chance of democratic change is correct only because we, the people, have switched-off, we have lost the will to fight the dictatorship.

There is nothing like the trials and tribulations of life to bring the best and/or worst in us all, individually or collectively as a nation. The President Mugabe is not the all-powerful tyrant the people of Zimbabwe have billed him to be; he only appears to be that because we have cast ourselves as feeble minions born to yield to all before us.

"Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic heart,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
Said the poet, Lord Afred Tennyson.

We need Lord Tennyson's words to stiffen our backbone! God knows we need it! Our future is grim; the economic situation is under this Zanu-PF dictatorship is set to get worse and not better. We should not delude ourselves that there will be change after President Mugabe and his generation goes because there is restless brood of young Zanu-PF turkeys itching to take over! If we want democratic change we will have to fight this Zanu-PF dictatorship not tomorrow, not when President Mugabe goes, NOW! This is not the time to yield, to switch-off and become apathetic!   
 
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Patrick Guramatunhu <patguramatunhu@gmail.com