Let us
commemorate our Independence
Tomorrow is Independence Day and every patriotic
Zimbabwean must take time to reflect on the
supreme national sacrifice in which the sons and
daughters of this land paid the ultimate sacrifice
while some lost their limbs so that the whims of
future generations could walk again.
Some of us are proud of the liberation legacy and the
successful quest by Zimbabweans to reclaim their
dignity from a oppressive colonial regime.

Even as a post-liberation political formation, we
stand for the continuation and perpetuation and not
the negation or opposition of the liberation project.
We are proud and patriotic Zimbabweans and
tomorrow we will be joining the rest of the nation in
paying tribute to that invaluable chapter in our
national story.
Our only wish is to complete the outstanding
business of our independence so that political
independence would truly mean the advent of
freedoms and the proper respect for the right to vote
which was at the core of our protracted national
struggle. The land and the right to vote were at the
epicenter of the people’s struggle.
In many ways, the sanctity of our struggle has been
undermined, if not hijacked, by a selected few who
have betrayed the noble aspirations of Zimbabweans
when they waged that brutal struggle. As a post-
liberation political formation, we anchor our own
struggles on the liberation struggle, its values and
aspirations.
We truly honour the liberation effort.
Tomorrow, we will be joining the rest of the nation in
commemorating the heroic act of Zimbabweans in
consigning colonial oppression to the dustbins of
history. The only challenge is to finish the
outstanding business of that struggle for which so
many Zimbabweans died.
Going rural: Thank You Masvingo
True to our promise of going rural in this election
campaign, I had an eventful weekend in Masvingo,
starting with the chastening rally at Nyika growth
point in Bikita on Friday and then another huge-turn-
out at Jerera in Zaka the following day.
Elsewhere, the MDC-T and MDC Alliance leaders
were addressing huge crowds in the rural hinterland
from Nkayi in Matabeleland North, Mount Darwin in
Mashonaland central, Gokwe in the Midlands,
Hurungwe in Mashonaland West to Makoni in
Manicaland province. We have pledged to largely go
rural in this election and over the weekend, we were
doing precisely that by honouring our solemn pledge
to go rural in our campaign.
My visit and interactions with the people in Masvingo
brought a lot of issues to the fore.
The first was the hunger for change, which is now a
national chorus.
What was glaringly palpable was the self-evident
collapse of the national infrastructure and the
fracturing of our communities. I saw collapsed
services, poor roads and dilapidated hospitals.
I saw for myself the deadening poverty pervading our
rural areas and how Zimbabweans are struggling to
put food on the table.
I saw the marginalization of the people and the
abuse of our traditional leaders who are being used
to intimidate villagers by collecting serial numbers of
the voter registration slips.
I saw command politics at play, as evidenced by the
use of food as a political weapon in the rural
communities. Known and identified government
bureaucrats have been deployed to advance a
partisan agenda and to strike fear in the rural
communities.
Bikita in Context
On Friday, I was chastened by the huge turn-out at
Nyika growth point in Bikita. I had occasion to
engage the people and our message centred on the
need for electoral reforms as well as our policy
agenda that will be undergirded by the tripod pillars
of transformation, opportunity and prosperity.
After the rally at Nyika, I had occasion to visit
Silveira Mission hospital, where I was born some 40
years ago. It was a nostalgic moment and I saw for
myself how things are getting worse in our hospitals.
For example, there were three beds in the ward
where I was born but I realized on Friday that only
two were left as the third had since broken. Things
have taken a debilitating turn since I was born at
that hospital in rural Bikita, where my mother comes
from.
I saw 22 expecting women in the maternity ward,
who are being asked to pay $50 for the national
service of giving birth to the future leaders of this
country.
Our incoming government will ensure that we scrap
such fees charged on women for performing a
national service.
I took time to pray with a 9-year old Mercy
Chigwende, a young girl with the rare condition of
cancer of the blood. Her parents are finding it
difficult to meet the huge bills where she is being
charged $400 per week. I assisted with some
money but money alone is nothing. I had to summon
the providence of God to intervene to save the life of
the innocent girl.
On Saturday, I attended Holy Communion at the
church conference in Chatsworth, where I had
occasion to listen to a powerful word and found time
to pray with the church elders and pastors.
I would wish to restate my unstinting belief that
politics should not usurp church platforms to peddle
a partisan agenda. Church platforms must be
exclusively used for the word of God. Anything else
is tantamount to defiling the sacred and sanctified
holy places of worship.
In the afternoon I addressed a rally at Jerera Growth
Point in Zaka where again I had occasion to sum up
our promise to the people of Zimbabwe when we
form the next government in September. We pledge
to restore the dignity of Zimbabweans, to create jobs
but first of all to ensure that we create a proper
environment for the people to express their sovereign
will in a truly free, fair and credible election.
I also found time to lay wreath on the grave of Crison
Mbano, a political violence victim and one of our
party activists in Zaka who was killed in the
despicable Zanu PF-orchestrated violence of 2008 in
which so many Zimbabweans died. I saw some of
the survivors of the brutal violence in which Mbano
and others perished.
Indeed, I was sorely touched by their plight as well
as that of the many thousands of Zimbabweans
throughout the country who suffered a similar fate.
Going rural again
This coming weekend I will be interacting with the
people in yet another rural community but first, I
have to join my fellow citizens in the important duty
of commemorating our independence.
Indeed, we must spare a thought for the brutal but
heroic struggle that we waged against an oppressive
colonial system.
Happy independence month, Zimbabwe!