Zanu PF has redefined democracy into empty "rhetoric" just as people have done to Amandla! Ngawethu! N Garikai

 Dear Terence Q Ndlovu

Thank you very much for your thoughtful and thought provoking article, ‘Redefining democracy, Zimbabwe rhetoric’ in Bulawayo 24.

“‘Amandla! Ngawethu!’ The slogan chant echoed (to mark independence in 1980) through the dusty suburbs and growth points that harboured the vast majority of Zimbabwean, as the promised land was finally in their hands, or was it?” you wrote. 

“Fast forward, 40 years on and the slogan chant has evolved to #ZimbabweanLivesMatter, did the Zimbabwean people win one war on repression only to find themselves smack bang in the middle of another? The rhetoric is out, You figure it out.”

The biggest mistake the people of Zimbabwe have ever made was to allow themselves to be lured; admitted by the use of brute force, mostly; into this position where they are nothing but political serfs beholden to their overbearing Zanu PF demigods! Zanu PF thugs have ridden roughshod over the people, denying them their freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life. 

With no one to hold them to democratic account, Zanu PF thugs have done as they pleased for the last 40 years and counting. 40 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness that has earned the country its pariah state status have left the country in economic ruins and political paralysis. 

It must be said in the 40 years the nation has had many chances to end the Zanu PF dictatorship, notably during the 2008 to 2013 GNU, but has wasted them all. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends sold-out during the 2008 GNU and failed to implement even one reform. 

It was all very well to shout “Amandla! Ngawethu!” (Power! To the people!) in 1980 and for a decade or so thereafter. It was another thing to realise that the people had no power much less do something to seek redress! 

With each pasting year, each passing decade; Zanu PF thugs have become more addicted to absolute power and have resorted to more brutal measures to consolidate their strangle hold on power. With each passing year and decade is has become harder ad harder to reclaim our right to hold Zanu PF to democratic account. But the main reason why we have failed to end the dictatorship is our failure to recognise the opportunity to do so. 

We have had many get-out-of-jail cards and wasted them! Unless we learn to recognise these cards we will get another and waste it too!

The knowledge and understanding that being denied one’s freedoms and rights was not the end of the story; it was one’s scared duty and responsibility to fight and secure those freedoms and right. Hope tampered with knowledge the innermost core of Amandla! Ngawethu! 

The Zanu PF dictatorship has lasted 40 years and counting because we, the people, have lost self belief and confidence in being masters of our own destiny, that we can end the dictatorship. And so even when the country had the get-out-of-jail card, we failed to recognised it for what it is because the innermost Amandla! Ngawethu! fire had gone out! 

"The Second Republic since its inception has accelerated the entrenchment and consolidation of democracy and constitutionalism and the rule of law in pursuit of social justice and equal opportunities for the economic empowerment of the previously marginalised majority," said President Mnangagwa in his Heroes' Day address to the nation.

Empty and utterly meaningless “democratic rhetoric”, as you have rightly called it. Still, by failing to reclaim our fundament right to hold Zanu PF to account we have played our part in allowing Zanu PF get away with democratic rhetoric at our expense. We have allowed Amandla! Ngawethu! to become an empty and utterly meaningless slogan! 

Zanu PF has redefined democracy into empty rhetoric just as we, the people, have redefine Amandla! Ngawethu! into empty rhetorical nonsense!