It is for two reasons that i pen this open letter to you. First,millions of Zimbabweans deposited their hope in you to shepherd them to a better Zimbabwe;a palpable yearning by our people for a land of our birth that every Zimbabwean is proud to call home.
Secondly i believe you stand with the people. Some of your erstwhile Cdes in the trenches for clean accountable government,the likes of Douglas Mwonzora and Linda Masarira-human rights defenders turned regime defenders today help,with impish glee,pin down hapless Zimbabweans while Mnangagwa violates them.
For six pieces of silver,they have sold out the struggle for a better Zimbabwe for all.
Look Nelson,we are dealing with political thugs with guns.The regime has captured the courts and the security cluster command element.The courts and the ZRP are now used as a sledgehammer to attack regime critics.A soldier who a few days ago stabbed his wife seven times and ripped open her stomach was granted bail by the high court at first ask.
For tweeting,Hopewell Chin’ono spent forty-five days in leg irons at Chikurubhi maximum prison. Denied bail.
The courts are captured.Chapter nine institutions are corrupted. Electoral heists are sanitized in an elaborate at all cost power retention agenda. It is blindingly clear the corrupt,murderous Mnangagwa regime will never voluntarily reform itself out of power. Contrary to public regime statements of reform, incontrovertible evidence abounds of a relentless reformation of the tyranny.
The injustices that our people faced under the rogue Smith regime are the very same injustices Zimbabweans face today under the rogue Mnangagwa regime. Peaceful opponents are harassed,arbitrarily arrested and jailed. Dissenting voices are abducted and tortured. Must we not then do to this cabal what we did to the Smith cabal?.Why should we pussyfoot around the subject of removing Mnangagwa to save Zimbabwe?.Why must any self-respecting Zimbabwean pussyfoot around the fact that this is a tyrannical system that must be abolished?.I hear people say Job Sikhala was in hiding. That is true. But are we all not in hiding from the simple reality that the failed Mnangagwa must be removed by peaceful people power to save Zimbabwe?.
The regime has reduced the average Zimbabwean to sub goat herder grade. A state registered nurse with a three year diploma in nursing earns less than a cattle herder in neighbouring Botswana. A teacher with a hard earned diploma in education or Grad Ce earns less than a ‘house girl’ in South Africa. The salary of an SA security guard pays a Zimbabwean soldier and a policeman their monthly RTGS plus bonus.The ignominy of it all!.
Our struggle is bigger than MDC or Zanu-Pf.It is about Zimbabwe.It is a binary of the regime against the people.It is a binary of millions of Zimbabweans who face hunger,abject poverty and hopelessness and fat cartels and criminals in the highest offices in the land looting public money.Ihondo yevarombo nembavha dziri kudya zvevarombo.
David said God is in it,picked up his sling and confronted Goliath. Our God manifests when we act;for faith without works is dead.
For a long time Zimbabweans have taken the chronic painkiller that is talks,GNU,talks about talks,more talks and nill change. False hope. Fake reforms. How do you reform a high court judge who sups at the Zanu feeding trough at night?
No more painkillers.It is time to take the one operation of a million citizens in the streets that once and for all peacefully removes the cancerous tumour.
A democratic,accountable and people centric government in our lifetimes.
Shepherd Chidhakwa
(Shepherd Chidhakwa is the founder and director of the Democracy Advocate Initiative (DAI) Trust. He writes in his personal capacity)