Fellow Zimbabweans, on the occasion of our 45th independence annnivesary {see Original Press statement}, we are forced to mark the day on our calendars with nothing to celebrate in our lives. As Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU), we are dismayed by the one-party state ideology that was ushered into our political environment by ZANU PF since 1980. This agenda has been perfected into insidious dictatorship laced with corruption of unimaginable proportions, looting of resources at the expense of ordinary citizens, gross human rights abuses, weaponisation of the judiciary, primitive regionalism and tribalism. Zimbabwe has been caught in a weak institutional and violent trap since independence. Our 2013 national constitution, which was supposed to guide the nation towards a progressive horizon is being decimated by dictatorship and the appetite for a one-party state.
The hard-won independence our forebears and heroes sacrificed for has remained devoid of freedom, rendering it such a bitter pill to swallow. Fellow compatriots, today we mark 45 years of rampant corruption, mediocrity, currency instability, eroded savings, poor service delivery, hospitals without medicine, a dying educational system, delapidated road infrastructure, unemployment, poor electricity supply, an overtaxed citizenry, nepotism and a poorly paid civil service. These socio-economic factors have weakened opposition and divided us as Zimbabweans, making it easier for the ZANU PF-led government to continue ravaging the country with impunity. To this end, ZAPU has made a clearly informed deduction, that engaging a dictatorship while fragmented makes no impact but gives the oppressor enough ammunition to continue manipulating the citizenry, perpetuating our suffering. We therefore call for the establishment of a united front in the fight to dislodge the ZANU PF regime.
Our people are tired of draconian laws brought forward from colonialism to be used to fight their constitutional rights. This is an act of self-ruin steming from the ZANU PF regime’s inability to understand the futility of dictatorship. Having witnessed the collapse of many post-independence administrations in Africa, due to dictatorship and its attendant corruption, we are shocked by the foolishness of the rogue regime in Harare. How they believe their rudimentay brand of dictatorship will not collapse would be laughable if it were not so tragic. While we pity the fools, we cannot ignore the humanitarian crisis their misrule has wrought on Zimbabwe. Even our environment, flora and fauna have equally suffered under the plunder of primitive mining methods, state sponsored poaching and land degradation. Construction of buildings on wetlands and polution of water bodies have gone unabated. Money laundering stations, hidden in plain sight in the form of fuel outlets, have sprouted everywhere in urban areas, without following any clear town planning models.
As ZAPU,we strongly believe that independence can only be meaningful when it is coupled with freedom. The arbitrary arrests and protracted remand imprisonment of dissenting voices goes against all the tenets of a democratic society. Even worse is the arrest and indefinite detention of journalists for simply doing their jobs. The ongoing incarceration of Blessed Mhlanga, a fearless journalist, is an abomination on our globally ridiculed pariah state. We strongly condemn the muzzling of journalists and such brazzen attacks on media freedoms adopted by the Windhoek Declaration. We believe in a democratic nation state that respects human rights and freedoms of all its diverse citizens without regard to race, tribe, religious beliefs, or social status. We also respect the rule of law and the fearless prosecution of any violations of the law without regard to political or economic status. Corruption from whatever quarter – public or private – must never be tolerated. Above all, there should be respect for the separation of powers, unlike our untenable situation whereby the President usurps the right to unilateraly close parliament, for power retention in the echo of growing calls for his impeachment.
In conclusion, we reiterate our clarion call for unity of purpose. As an organization we are totally committed to the change desired by Zimbabweans. The convergence of our objective and subjective views confirms that time for change has come. Everyone in Zimbabwe including erstwhile members of ZANU PF now demands true freedom. We have been in bondage for a long time due to a myriad of factors characterised by a political environment of fear, violence and intimidation. The ruling party has fortified its grip on power using state resources and capture of all state institutions. Elections continue to be marred by glaring evidence of rigging, gerrymandering and voter intimidation. These acts of malpractice are insulated by the abuse of our security sector to defend the ruling party instead of the people. On this occasion of our 45th independence anniversary, we call upon all patriotic and progressive stakeholders to a national dialogue platform that will discuss our current challenges and map the way forward. It is time for all opposition parties and citizens in general to unite and unshackle ourselves from dictatorship and economic ruin through total freedom and genuine devolution of power.
Thank you
Ngiyabonga
Ndinotenda.
Michael Sibangilizwe Nkomo, ZAPU President
