Zimbabwe, you are on your own

ICWT Newsletter | Issue 58

By Trevor Ncube

Our fortunes as a nation will only change when we realise we are the masters of our destiny.

Our neighbours and the international community have a limited role in resolving our political and economic problems.

Zimbabwe’s neighbours and international partners will be invited to our problems by the urgency we manifest in tackling the decades long crisis.

The truth is that only we live and know how this national dislocation hurts.

They visit our political crisis from time to time, but we live in these crises.

We have all along acted as though we have outsourced our problems.

We get disappointed when the world fails to act according to our expectations.

These expectations are widely misplaced and reflect both national immaturity and collective abdication of our responsibilities.

We must get this very clearly; SADC, EU, US, Russians, Chinese etc owe us absolutely nothing.

Our problems are relevant to them in so far as they hinder or aid their foreign policy priorities.

And their domestic constituencies inform their foreign policy choices.

We are of interest to some of them for what our natural heritage offers them i.e. lithium, platinum group metals, cobalt, rare earth metals, diamonds, chrome etc.

It is thus incumbent upon us to normalise engaging in inconvenient conversations to unlock our intractable problems.

Our political and economic problems have metastasised and require all-hands-on-deck.

A national dialogue to resolve the majority of our problems is both urgent and critical and cannot be postponed.

It is the opportunity present in the current crisis of legitimacy for President Emmerson Mnangagwa, relevance for the opposition and a brighter future for all.

National dialogue requires courage and wisdom and stands a good chance of finding a durable solution to our problems.

Calling people to the streets is the easy bit and does not require wisdom at all. Any fool can throw an insult and a stone.

We must have a dialogue about our broken selves and our broken country, top to bottom.

Our new constitution has already been mutilated and needs fixing.

The police, military and intelligence services now serve individuals and not citizens and that must be fixed.

Our core values have been poisoned by the toxicity flowing from our politics.

We have no sense of right and wrong and have normalised corruption as a subculture.

The state of our opposition and non-profits mirrors the mediocrity and baseness of the ruling party.

A national dialogue cannot be left to Zanu – PF and CCC only.

A national dialogue must expand the tent to take full advantage of the beautiful minds and talent that Zimbabwe has produced at home and in the diaspora.

Labour, our vibrant and creative young people, faith based organisations, women and business must all have a seat at the table to craft a new Zimbabwe.

An important part of this dialogue is exorcising the ghosts of our traumatic past such as the liberation war, Gukurahundi, Operation Murambatswina and the election related violence.

When we take full charge of our destiny, our neighbours and international partners will get a cue of our intentions and determination to build a new society.

The commitment to national dialogue calls for love of country over partisan concerns.

Trevor Ncube is Chairman of Alpha Media Holdings and host of ICWT.

In Conversation with Father Fidelis Mukonori

Father Fidelis Mukonori, a respected Roman Catholic priest in Zimbabwe , has had the front row sit of epochal moments in the country. His relationship with leading politicians and no nonsense attitude has given him tremendous influence in times of conflict. This episode goes into the role he played during the liberation war, Lancaster House Conference, Government of National Unity and the ouster of Robert Mugabe by the army in 2017. Father Mukonori says the current impasse over the 2023 elections should be resolved through dialogue. In his book ‘Man in the Middle’ he shares his intimate conversations with Josiah Tongogara and Joshua Nkomo among others. Watch his episode here..

Audience Responses

From the Father Fidelis Mukonori episode, our community had this to say:

@brianmacgarry157:

We should not allow our leaders to play with our lives.

@tanyachokuda4872:

Father has so much to tell us

@tapiwadhanisogatsi2:

This country is blessed to have a man like Fr Fidelis
Mukonori , may God keeps you for us father , you have a lot
of work to do concerning our motherland Zimbabwe

@mampofu1052:

He used his sense of humour to articulate The Word. He was
amazing when he visited our parish. The whole church would
be in stitches laughing. I vividly remember, yet it was in
the 80s/90s

Coming Next: In Conversation with Ted Makoni

Don’t miss the next episode with Pioneering Zimbabwe Entrepreneur Ted Makoni In Conversation with Trevor.

Podcasts

• Bishop Never Muparutsa; Bishop of Pentecostal Assemblies of Zimbabwe.
• Moffat Takadiwa; Contemporary Visual Artist.
• Rumbi Katedza; Film and Television Director.