The crowd of more than 30,000 people, gathered to watch football rather than to listen to speeches, threw their hands up in anger, shouting at the speaker to leave the podium and return to his seat.
As the speaker soldiered on, reading through his prepared speech, the western stand, popularly known as the Soweto stand, broke into song and dance, chanting “Into oyenzayo, siyayizonda (We hate what you are doing)”, a song composed by Highlanders supporters as a way of showing disapproval, usually against actions of the referee during soccer games.
This time, though, the game was still about three hours away and there was no referee in sight.
On the receiving end of their displeasure was a highly-respected man in political circles, Bulawayo Governor Cain Mathema, who was reading a copy of Robert Mugabe’s Independence Day celebrations speech.
The soccer fans were expressing the feelings of most other ordinary Zimbabwean, to whom Independence Day means bombardment with Zanu (PF) propaganda and another chance for Mugabe to relive the country’s freedom struggle while thumbing his nose at the West, threatening whites, dismissing Britain and America as “evil” and calling the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party ‘puppets’.
“To this day, we bear the lasting scars of that dark encounter with colonialism often described in the West as civilising. We have turned east, where the sun rises, and given our back to the West, where the sun sets…We proclaim our pan-African spirit, stressing we shall never be a colony again…We made our own democracy and we owe it to no one, least of all the Europeans….Let it be forever remembered: it was the bullet that brought the ballot. Our ballots have not needed Anglo-American validation. They are validated by fellow Africans and friendly countries from the Third World. That is where we get justice, not from Europe, nor indeed from America,” said Mugabe on that day.
Zimbabwe may have been ‘celebrating’ its 28th year of self-rule from Britain, but its citizens need the country’s former colonial master more than at any other time, as the country is plagued by shortages of basic commodities like food, fuel and foreign currency.
Most people who spoke to our reporter in Bulawayo said that they would not be “fooled into celebrating” Independence Day.
“We are not yet independent. I think those who lived in colonial times were better of than us. They were being discriminated against in terms of colour but they had food on the shelves. Now we are being discriminated against in terms of political affiliation and we lack everything. Only top Zanu (PF) members like Mugabe are free,” said Peter Nkomo of Pumula South.
Economic, social and political commentators who spoke to The Zimbabwean this week said that, with the current situation, Independence Day will this year, just like in the previous eight, lack significance, as hunger, poverty and deprivation continue as the day-to-day reality of life in the country.
“The only way Independence Day can have a significance will be if there is a transition taking place when we get to the day, otherwise there will be nothing worth celebrating for the people under the current situation,” said Eddie Cross, an MDC Member of Parliament for Bulawayo South.
The crowd broke into song and dance, chanting “Into oyenzayo, siyayizonda. We hate what you are doing”.
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Post published in: Opinions