Independence still a long way off

There are hardly dissimilar salary regimes for women and men and some blacks now employ white people. There are more schools and hospitals than before 1980 and, of course, the Old Man has the leisure to chase whites away from Zimbabwe and take their farms, not the other way round.

If that was what constituted independence, I would be the happiest person, but I am still unhappy because what I call independence is still a long way away. Just recently, in this space, I gave an account of how fear rules Zimbabwe – judges, lawyers, journalists, the military junta, members of parliament and politicians are all afraid.

An independent country cannot be ruled by so much fear. If that was the case, no country would wish to become independent. In fact, one of the reasons why countries fight for freedom and independence is to remove the spectre of fear. People want to live in peace – without thick padlocks on their doors. They want to move freely and not be constantly glancing over their shoulders because some spook in dark glasses is following them.

As I argued that the fear we live with today is a direct product of our politics, offset by the selfish propensity of our nationalist leaders to preserve and perpetuate their power.

Resultantly, there is no significant difference in the way the erstwhile oppressors and the current ones treat the people. That is why we have the Public Order and Security Act – simply a 21st century version of the Law and Order Maintenance Act that Ian Douglas Smith used 40 years ago with so much success to ensure that the Rhodesian Front would rule for at least a thousand years, and which Robert Mugabe nursed at State House for about two decades before supplanting it with POSA.

And who doesn’t know that our current crop of political leaders, particularly those that claim to be the founders of nationalism (as though there was ever such a thing in our political history), is gunning for 10 centuries more in power? What then is the difference between the pre- and post-1980 periods, except that there is now a black pigmentation in our oppressors?

With the advent of so-called black majority rule—which, in fact, is simply black minority rule of a black majority citizenry—we were promised that we would have universal suffrage, what the likes of Mugabe called one-man-one-vote. Basically, that gave every eligible Zimbabwean the unassailable right to vote for any person of their choice seeking political office.

The tragic truth is that when one looks back at elections held from 1980 to 2008, that has not been the case. A significant number of the voting population has effectively been disenfranchised because their ballots would go into the “wrong” box. An example is what we saw in 2008, when voters lost life, limb and property because they did not support a particular political party, Zanu (PF) to be precise. That cannot be independence.

As I write, I am aware of a lot of machinations to once again deny the voting population their choice as enshrined in even the much-battered Lancaster House Constitution. Soldiers are roaming the villages intimidating voters.

I was young in 1980, but in the dusty streets of then Hartley, now Chegutu, I vividly remember the euphoria that greeted the “boys” who had just returned from the war front. I remember the jubilation and all-night vigils as people celebrated the advent of a new, independent Zimbabwe. It fired my young imagination and I was convinced there would be honey and milk on the streets.

The commissars told the celebrating masses that every person would get a job and no-one would go to bed on an empty stomach. There would be no “baases”, nor “pikinini kayas”. That was what independence meant, the people were told via posters pasted on street lamps, dusty retail shops and on trees.

Today, we still have the “baas”, only he is a fat black cat who will not share his loot with the salivating masses. We still have the “pikinini kayas”. In fact, there are now so many that,in 2005 the “baases” decided to raze quite a number of them to the ground during Operation Murambatsvina, so that they would have a clearer vision of where next to go for their loot.

We have the diamonds, but not the money. The Chinese and the fat cats are the only ones that are enjoying the fruits of Marange as the poor majority toils for trinkets. More than 80 percent are unemployed and many still hold out the begging bowl on a daily basis. That is not what we were promised, and that is not independence!- For feedback, please write to majonitt@gmail.com