Background: An identity crisis

An identity crisis has continued to paralyse Zimbabwe’s body politic throughout 2011. The reason for the inability of Zanu PF and the democratic forces to work together is because of the fundamental divergence of their world views.
Zanu PF believe the core issues to be empowerment, race and a foreign based conspiracy to change the authentic African nationalist leaders.
The democratic forces argue the real issues are about human rights, democracy, investment and development.
Do Zimbabweans have the right to choose which world view best represents their interests?

Zanu PF think that the political imperative is above the Rule of Law, above the Will of the People and above sensible economics. They came to power through the barrel of the gun and therefore derive their authority to rule from the liberation struggle. They claim that the armed struggle empowered the people. They claim they have continued to do so since 1980 by expanding educational opportunities and making health more accessible. They have used the land reform to correct inherited imbalances and currently are aiming at the Indigenization of business and commerce. (more…)

Morgan Tsvangirai has the potential to become the country’s next president and the majority of Zimbabweans say “Amen” to that, however, the man’s most recent sex contacts have raised eyebrows both on friends and foes.

He has bed hopped; accusations that he has impregnated two women inside a year have seen the media descending on him for it was outright sensational.

The ordinary persons asks what kind of a message is this man, who could become the country’s third president since independence in 1980, sending to the youths who obviously regard him as a role model.

Zimbabweans, scared of the HIV and AIDS pandemic , now fear that the next president could be taking chances with his life especially considering that he is obviously not using any form of protection. (more…)

As it stands innocent Zimbabweans, who do not even understand what sanctions are and how they were imposed, are the ones who are bearing the brunt of the Zanu PF anti-sanctions mantra. The former ruling party is putting paid to the saying if you are not with us then you are against us.

The truth of the matter is sanctions are impacting on the few politicians who are not allowed to do their usual businesses in the western countries where they buy in expensive shops with money looted from the country.

Sanctions continue to bear the brunt of the blame for the government’s inability to sort out the country.  If it is food shortages, sanctions are to blame, because fertilizer and seed are in short supply, if it is HIV Aids, sanctions are to blame for the shortage of ARV’s, if it is factories closing sanctions are blamed as western countries won’t buy our goods.  Blame blame blame – and there is no doubt in my mind that Zanu will use the MDC’s inability to end sanctions in their forthcoming election campaigns. (more…)

The much talked about story of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s alleged marriage continues to be viewed differently by Zimbabweans from different walks of life.

When the Premier was called to a traditional court by a Mazowe Chief for flouting African traditional culture by paying lobola in the month of November, Tsvangirai refused to attend citing protocol irregularities and political interference. But this did not stop Chief Negomo from proceeding with the case that tried and convicted the MDC-T leader.

One of my collegues described the Premier’s refusal to attend Chief Negomo’s court as arrogance.

“To me the fact still remains Prime minister broke the culture by paying lobola in November to the Karimatsenga family, a fact which he has failed to disprove, instead claiming he merely paid damages. (more…)

It is astonishing, but not surprising that Zimbabweans do not want elections any time soon. This reads like a contradiction. Not really. It is not surprising because Zimbabweans remember the violence of 2008 and simply do not want a repeat of it. The main reason is Zimbabweans have full supermarket shelves for the first time since the economic collapse, to put it simply, and this is what makes their reasoning for not wanting elections to be astonishing. A once proud people have been beaten in to submission by bullies to the point where they seem to say, if we let you take our sandwiches quietly, will you leave us alone? With nearly half the population in exile, forced and self imposed, Zimbabweans just want peace… at any cost and that is dangerous for future generations. How do a people give up their pride in such dramatic fashion? Come to think it, the decline has not been that sudden.

In the 80s, the party and government in power orchestrated the killing of over 20 000 of its own people, “in a moment of madness” and the rest of the country, in their vast majority, looked away because a war for independence had just been waged and won. Education, health and the economy in general were booming, the violence was localised to one region of the country and it was time to take a break. Zimbabweans on the whole carried on as if nothing significant had happened. (more…)

Its Christmas time and preparations are at an advanced stage for the big day where impoverished Zimbabweans forget about their sorrows.

The rich have been buying goods and clothes at up market shops while the poor have been buying whatever they can at downtown shops with predominantly Chinese goods, sadly of very low quality – all for the sake of Christmas.

Nonetheless everyone is geared up for the big day where families are reunited and food is at least in abundance. Families long separated by the economic mishaps of the past decade have been united or are just about to be as husbands, daughters and children working in the Diaspora, mostly South Africa, troop in for the most celebrated day in Zimbabwe. http://www.newzimbabwe.com/news-6761-Beitbridge%20holiday%20pile-up%20begins/news.aspx

Children of Zimbabwe are here for Christmas which means a day of feasting. (more…)

When I was in Bulawayo last week, having gone to attend my friend’s wedding, I had an opportunity to talk to some of my friends who l had not seen for a very long time. Our bar talk changed from one topic to another, but most interesting was the hosting of political parties conferences in the city of kings Kwa-Bulawayo.

Why did these two main political parties decide to hold their conference in Bulawayo of all the towns? First it was the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) early this year and the year ended with the revolutionary party ZANU PF.

While we continued to drink, bathing our souls into the midnight hours, tempers started rising, the main issue of marginalisation and deliberate under-capitalization of the region dominated the night.

But what came out of the discussion was that the short term beneficiaries of the last congress was the city’s residents – for a whole week there were no power cuts! It was a matter of Christmas coming early to Bulawayo residents. (more…)

When my friends and I watched the Heroes Day “celebrations” we sighed with resignation when ZanuPf did their normal abduction of our national holidays, arriving in full party regalia and shouting their party slogans.  Since we watched this Zanu stolen celebration we have gotten more and more angry about the party of thieves, ZanuPf.

We are sick to death of ZanuPf behaving as if they own everything in this country and they forget one very important thing – they no longer control all information in Zimbabwe, for we, the younger generation, know exactly how to get on to the internet, how to use Facebook and how to get and send real news, not just Zanu news.

The Liberation struggle of Zimbabwe was fought by Zimbabweans from all walks of life, not just one political party.  But Zanu continuously and foolishly personalise the Liberation Struggle as if their party members are the only ones who fought for democracy and freedom, neither of which any of us common people actually has today.

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