I AM quite ruminative. Yes, I tend to think deeply and carefully about things. And whenever I do, I am constantly reminded of my obligations to my country. This has to be ostensibly because politics for me is not, has not and will never be a youthful diversion. I am of course youthful and currently aged 31. I have been involved in politics largely with pen and ink for some considerable time.
Over the years, I have seen politics becoming an essential and fundamental part of my being, a kind of occupational disease. Politics is like the cross. The cross is not something that you merely put your hands on. The cross is never something you wear but it is rather something one bears and ultimately dies on. We gotta take up our cross and bear it. This is the very path that I have chosen and this is for the highest good of the country.
In addition, drugs have been known to be chemicals that change how we think, feel and act. Some drugs, like medicines, are helpful. It is well-known that cough syrup and penicillin are helpful to sick people. Isn’t it true that those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick? However, some drugs hurt and most of these are illegal - one can’t buy, sell or use them. Some drugs can hurt the body and the mind. It is perhaps significant to state categorically that one of the most dangerous parts of taking any drug is that a person could become addicted to it.
This means that his body now needs the drug, and feels sick without it. When someone feels like this, he is called an addict. An addict usually does poorly at school or work. An addict loses control of many things in life. Now politics is like a drug. I am a political addict and I cannot do without politics. I have a political mind and body and without politics the two are sick. I am therefore playing my part in being a helpful drug to my country. You would be worried if my body and mind had terrorism such as that of Boko Haram, Al Shabaab, Al Qaeda, ISIS, Taliban etc. Now listen to what I have to say for I am high on my political drug!
I am convinced that it is never too late for us as Zimbabweans to go back to the negotiating table. In my opinion, the key to unlocking the Zimbabwean political and economic crises lies in dialogue. The moment we subordinate our personal preferences to those of the nation is the moment we will begin to know that Zimbabwe is larger than Robert Mugabe or Morgan Tsvangirai. It could even be anybody else.
My choice of these two personalities is a result of the influence they have on millions of Zimbabweans inside and outside the country. There can be no doubt that I am in South Africa because of economic security and relative comfort that I couldn’t access in my country of citizenship. My government failed completely to provide me and millions others with economic opportunities. Naturally, we were pushed from an ugly situation and pulled to one in which our economic needs could be met.
My understanding of negotiation is such that it involves dialogue between two or more people or parties intended to reach an understanding, resolve a point of difference, or gain advantage in outcome of dialogue, to produce an agreement upon courses of action, to bargain for individual or collective advantage, to craft outcomes to satisfy various interests of two people or parties involved in the negotiation process.
The main object of negotiation, as we have come to understand, is compromise. I constantly have telephone discussions with my close lieutenants, those who really care about the present and future of our country. What dominates these discussions is our undying love for our country. I can confidently say that the love of our common country still burns with the fire of the olden time in our hearts despite our physical absence. As a result, we all believe that politics of exclusion have no place in the Zimbabwe we wish to be associated with.
Zanu PF dominance through electoral rigging doesn’t obliterate the existence of the MDC from the body politic. In essence, we are all Zimbabweans. Zimbabwe is all we have and each of us should therefore be able to make a fundamental contribution to the social, political and economic development of our country regardless of one’s political affiliation.
Although it is common knowledge that a politician in Zimbabwe is a man of the party, I would fain be the man of my whole country. When suffering comes like it has now it doesn’t look for Zanu PF or MDC members. It attacks all. We all are leading miserable and sorrowful lives because of our intransigence and insistence that we toe the party line. It is quite unfortunate that the past 34 years of independence have seen our country being totally given up to the spirit of party that not to follow blindfolded the one or the other is an expiable offence.
If we are to be remembered for having saved Zimbabwe from the greatest peril through which it has ever passed then we ought to stop fragmenting our country. I have nothing against multi-party politics but I have every reason to speak out against sectarian politics obtaining in our country. The existence of many political parties has not enhanced democratic discourse in Zimbabwe but has, instead, caused unnecessary confusion and great consternation among citizens. One wonders when all this madness will come to an end.
It is of course a truism that we cannot trust the Zanu PF government to do the job for which it exists - which is to protect us and to promote our common welfare. In fact the Harare regime has failed to inspire confidence and instill hope in us. We are on the verge of despair and we are desperately looking for creative solutions to come out of the present political and economic morass. But what do we do? We waste our energy on trivialities. I sincerely believe that no partisan considerations should outweigh our devotion to the national interest and to the truth. It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get where we are today. We ought to emulate those who sacrificed so much for Zimbabwe to be established.
In conclusion, I want us to remember that two heads are better than one and many hands make work light. As Barack Obama observed, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”