As Tacitus once said: “A desire to resist oppression is implanted in the nature of man.” This was best displayed by the people of Zimbabwe over the past few days when the whole nation rallied toward a united call for its nonagenarian president to step down after 37 years in power.
November 21, 2017 marked an important milestone for the people of Zimbabwe in their march toward political emancipation and economic freedom when the hard-pressed Gushungo, President Robert Mugabe, tendered his resignation as the president of that country. Is this a victory that’s worth celebrating or hollow in nature, given who is poised to take over as president of the ruling Zanu-PF party and the Republic of Zimbabwe?
I am mindful of the fallible nature of humanity, however, the people of Zimbabwe have a moral obligation, using President Nnamdi Azikiwe’s words, “not to allow the mistakes and disappointments of the past to act as a stumbling block to the hopes and achievements of the future”.
It’s incumbent upon the incoming ruling class in the government and the ruling party to eradicate any scope for disintegrating forces that will seek to drag the country backward away from a new tomorrow that speaks of change and moving forward.
Nor should it continue perpetrating the exploitation of a hope for a better tomorrow, but rather realise this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change the destiny of this great nation, which has been placed under unfavourable circumstances by the evil forces of history.
Whom shall we send? And who will go for us? These are some of the questions that have gripped the people of Zimbabwe as they ponder their new tomorrow.
The November 21 events sought to envision a new Jerusalem for a united and peaceful nation of Zimbabwe. Finally: “God has His dwelling with mankind and He shall dwell among them and they shall be His people and God Himself will be with them.”
Is this the hope that should now be put into the hands of the president-in-waiting, Emmerson Mnangagwa, to take the nation of Zimbabwe forward? Once again, the Bible says that Jesus is the Son of God.
The same could be said about Mnangagwa, who has been at Mugabe’s side and his chief aide for decades - and who apparently is deemed to be a chief architect in most of the atrocities that happened under Mugabe’s long rule.
Both men, Mugabe and Mnangagwa, have been close allies since 1962 and formed a strong mentor-protégé political relationship.
Given this shoddy history of Mnangagwa, can Zimbabweans reliably pin their hopes of a better life - post Mugabe - in the hands of Mnangagwa? Wouldn’t The Crocodile (Mnangagwa’s nickname) manifest itself in some form or another and re-emerge only to continue where his former political master had left off?
Today the world has witnessed the rebirth of the nation of Zimbabwe with Mnangagwa poised to take over as its president. However, it boggles the mind to expect miracles from the man who has been at the centre and who has played a pivotal role in that country’s misfortunes, politically, socially and economically.
We remain privileged spectators as history has no records of Mnangagwa’s attempts to abolish the oppressive and exploitative concentration of power in the hands of the former nonagenarian leader.
Mugabe’s totalitarian centralisation of state power - with the help of the army and war veterans who later turned against him - was his own undoing.
The economic fortunes of Zimbabwe, a country that was once deemed “the breadbasket of Africa”, came to a grinding halt and it remains to be seen if the country can restore this status under the rule of Mnangagwa and his political elites.
The clumsy bureaucratic leadership style that Mugabe displayed and enjoyed for decades, which was left to prosper by the very same ruling Zanu-PF and the military veterans - and with Mnangagwa as his second in charge - bankrupted the state, led to a severe decline in economic activity and effectively drove the people of Zimbabwe into extreme poverty and unemployment levels.
It is against this background that I wish to argue, notwithstanding Mugabe’s fall from grace, that Zimbabwe is not on the road to recovery under the leadership of Mnangagwa. The ruling Zanu-PF and the soon-to-be established government will first need to rid itself of all the political demagogues within its ranks that enjoy the support of the weak-willed and politically bankrupt supporters.
The real vanguards of the struggle for total liberation of Zimbabwe and its people must rise up, take ownership of this cause and offer themselves as living sacrifices for the benefit of the whole nation.
This is the struggle that the people of Zimbabwe must lead instead of sacrificing their future in the hands of a political system that has failed them for many years. As Martin Nicol once said: “If people read and understand history, they are more likely to make better history themselves.”
And the history that Nicol talks about was best displayed this past Saturday when the people of Zimbabwe took to the streets of Harare to make a clarion call that “enough is enough”.
It is true, therefore, that when the nation is going through agony, God will allow the pain so that His people can unite.
Notably, the ruling Zanu-PF has been marred with infighting over the past couple of years and, at the centre of it all, is the question of who will succeed Mugabe.
Purging and suspending all those who were deemed to be collaborating about toppling Mugabe became the order of the day under the eye of the war veterans and military agents.
The opposition, trade unionists and civil society, including journalists, could not escape the wrath of the old man, who drove them into disarray through prison detainments with no charges and who barred their right to freedom of speech.
This hostile repression of all those who were not dancing to Mugabe’s tune - which at this point had come to define his government - did not stop.
Interestingly, it could be inferred that all these atrocities had the support of the military veterans and the army and history, once again, has no record of them publicly denouncing such acts.
Can the fall of Mugabe and the effective rise of Mnangagwa to the highest office be perceived to be a victory for the people of Zimbabwe or just a political victory for one section in the ruling Zanu-PF party?
Have we just witnessed Mnangagwa’s sheer political brilliance by manoeuvring himself back into the ruling party’s and country’s leadership at the expense of Mugabe’s head? Or is what we have seen a mere shift of political power within Zanu-PF? History has it on record that during the 2000 and 2005 parliamentary elections, Mnangagwa failed to win a seat but was accommodated by Mugabe when he made him the speaker of parliament.
Mnangagwa seems to have many political blemishes, some of which date back to the 1980’s when the army brutally suppressed dissent mainly in the western province of Matabeleland North. All this makes one wonder if the glorification of this political machinist masks latent political weakness and vision within Zanu-PF.
The people of Zimbabwe should form part of a process to craft a new vision for their nation. The mammoth task that lies ahead now for Zimbabwe is to unite the nation toward a people-centred economic and social policy reform state. The current political situation requires great leadership and I do not believe that this can be solely left in the hands of the ruling elite.
The people of Zimbabwe should and must form part of a reform process and play a meaningful role in defining their tomorrow, instead of leaving this noble task in the hands of their political masters.
The crisis of succession within the ruling Zanu-PF party will
create further divisions within its ranks and this will escalate the political violence we have witnessed in the past.
The success of the ruling Zanu-PF party and Mnangagwa in returning the economy of Zimbabwe back to its previous economic fortunes will be meaningless if it excludes the people of Zimbabwe.
During times of political hardship, economic crisis and revolution, more often than not, sound political leadership is needed and this is what the people of Zimbabwe have been denied for years.
Additionally, the people of Zimbabwe should be wary of this charismatic revolutionary leader who is going to articulate a political discourse about the unjust power-mongering that the country had witnessed under the outgoing president, and yet omit his role as a central figure in the formation of the current political regime.
A drive toward uniting the people of Zimbabwe, regardless of their political affiliation, will compromise the counter-revolutionaries and those sitting on the fences.
The fight for liberty has just begun in Zimbabwe and the responsibility to formulate a
people-centred policy has now fallen on that country. The people of Zimbabwe cannot continue to accept as their destiny the denial of human rights.
Lastly, the people of Zimbabwe should guard themselves against suffering once more at the hands of a political party that purports to be their true liberators, and instead strike back with all the force at their command and put in their claim to true freedom.
The struggle for economic and political freedom is usually long and gloomy, but behind all the disappointments and suffering lies the hope and realisation of a better tomorrow.
* Wonci is a professional within the financial services sector.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.