We all have a duty "to do something" end the economic meltdown - demanding Zanu PF led GNU is wrong and insane P Guramatunhu

The economic situation in Zimbabwe is one in which doing nothing is no longer an option. As a citizen of a country one has a right to play a meaningful role in the governance of the country and when the said right is denied, to demand it and even die fighting to defend. The punishment of doing nothing under the pretext of keeping the peace is the economic and political chaos we see in Zimbabwe today.

If the truth be told (it must be told, no matter what) Zimbabweans have tried to end the Zanu PF dictatorship, the root cause of the economic mess and political crisis. There have been countless street protests but most notable of all the people have risked life and limb to elect MDC on the mistaken belief the party would bring about the democratic changes the nation was dying for. But, as we can see, all their efforts have all come to naught.

So, “doing something” as in doing anything is not enough; we must be a lot savvier, more subtle. We must do something but, this time, make sure it delivers the desired democratic changes we are after. What that something is; is the million-dollar question!

"It's not for an individual to say people must do this. People do not need Chamisa to tell them to get out of their queue of fuel and do something. People don't need Chamisa to tell them that the situation at home is unbearable,” argued Nelson Chamisa, leader of the MDC, in his effort to rally the nation into action.

“People don't need Chamisa to tell them that medical bills are almost beyond the reach of many. Relatives are dying; friends are dying on account of a situation.

"We don't need a signal under those circumstances. The economy itself is a signal that we must do something and what we must do must be peaceful and constitutional and the constitution has self-correcting mechanisms; a mechanism of ensuring where government or people who call themselves leadership are not performing are brought to account and that is what Zimbabwe must do."

Yes Chamisa, people do not need anyone to remind them the economic situation is unbearable; that they have the democratic right, indeed the duty, to demand an end to the economic meltdown and political paralysis gripping the nation; etc.; etc. They know all these already. What the nation wants to hear from you, or anyone else, asking the people to join in the street protest is the assurance the protest will deliver the desired democratic changes.

MDC has been calling for the nation to join in the street protest to pressure Mnangagwa to agree to MDC demands to go into a power sharing arrangement, a watered-down version of the 2008 to 2013 GNU. We all know that the 2008 GNU failed to implement even one democratic reform. Not one!

“We got in the inclusive government and just sat there, spent five years in there. We came out without doing anything,” confessed Nelson Chamisa two weeks ago, after a decade of blaming SADC leaders for GNU’s failures.

“We will not do that, dialogue must have timelines that are very clear, the international community must tick us, mark us on the boxes.”

MDC has promised that the new power sharing arrangement will implement “comprehensive reforms” but only the politically naïve will believe that given that MDC will be an even weaker partner this time than in the 2008 GNU. There is no doubt that Chamisa and his MDC friends will “sit, eat and do nothing” in the new GNU just as they did in the last one.

My fellow Zimbabweans, it would be far better to stay away from MDC proposed street protests for it is better to do nothing than to do the wrong thing! Joining MDC is demanding another Zanu PF and MDC GNU, so Chamisa et al can sit, eat and do nothing again, is not only stupid it is insane!