Zimbabwean have lived through numerous trials and tribulations, which they have been subjected to by the ZANU PF government since 1980, such that it is always a huge mystery as to how they have survived through all this untold suffering.
How else can one describe people who have insufferably borne the brunt of the ZANU PF government’s decades of atrocities, repression, and economic mismanagement?
Since the country’s independence in 1980, Zimbabweans have never had a day’s respite, as they have faced tribulation after tribulation, whilst those in power have never spent a sleepless night trying to alleviate the lot of the people, but have, instead, amassed so much wealth for themselves through plundering the country’s rich resources.
The government has never viewed the people of this country as nothing more than brainless clods, who are just pawns in consolidating the leaders’ grip on power – as the only time these leaders have ever been seen partaking in any semblance of engagement with the ordinary people has been during election campaigns.
I was born and bred in the small iron and steel making town of Redcliff, but never in my 43 years of existence have I ever heard of a meeting between the area’s Member of Parliament (MP) and the residents, outside of election time.
Such is the attitude of the Zimbabwe government, which betrays its gross disregard for the people.
Instead of working hard to provide a better life for all Zimbabweans, soon after independence, the ZANU PF government decided to unleash its Youth Brigades to intimidate and brutalise the masses – thereby, putting an abrupt end to their ‘Independence honeymoon’.
Although, I was still in primary school, the memories of the ZANU PF Youth Brigades ‘toyi-toying’ around the town, and going door-to-door forcing every young person to attend its meetings, are still very fresh in my mind.
Fortunately, as a result of my very tender age, I was spared the meetings, but an older cousin that we stayed with was not that lucky, as she was constantly frog-marched to these meetings nearly on a weekly basis, despite her fragile health.
As if that was not enough, the ZANU PF youths embarked on a genocidal career, in which any person of Ndebele ethnicity was subject to the most dehumanising and demeaning treatment – and this was not even Gukurahundi yet.
I remember a ZANU PF rally in which a very senior party and government official – who is today accused of being a leader of one of the party factions – told Redcliff residents that when they are returning from drinking beer, they should pass through the homes of Ndebeles and severely beat them up.
He went on to say that, if these Ndebeles reported the matter to the police, the government would just say that these people beat themselves up.
He even further said that when the government allocated resources, they would give Shonas the lion’s share, whilst Ndebeles would receive pittance.
We witnessed Ndebeles being made to climb very tall trees, and whilst the ZANU PF youths sang liberation war songs, they were ordered to jump – after which, they were severely beaten up using large sticks that would have been specially prepared for that purpose.
Others Ndebeles were tired to the railway line that led to Ziscosteel, so that when the early morning train, which transported coal, passed by, it would crush them.
It would later be alleged that these people had committed suicide.
These are just events I personally witnessed, but were by no means isolated, as I believe similar brutalities were carried out throughout the country.
Nevertheless, the already vile and gruesome situation took a turn for the worse between 1983 and 1987, when Gukurahundi was unleashed.
This is when the ZANU PF government sent its North Korean-trained 5th Brigade to kill between 20,000 and 50,000 mainly Ndebele people in the Midlands and Matabeleland regions.
I also vividly remember in 1984, when in grade 5, the homes of Ndebeles being razed to the ground, when a large group of chanting ZANU PF youths went around our town.
Those were the most traumatizing events of my entire life, which forever defined my life’s destiny, as it engrained in me a serious loathing of any form of injustice and repression.
These events also opened my eyes to the true nature of ZANU PF.
Of course, ZANU PF atrocities did not end with Gukurahundi, as these further reared their ugly heads from the year 2000, with the massacre of numerous members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), especially after the defeat of Mugabe in the 2008 Presidential elections.
Needless to say, even today, scores of people are still being subjected to wanton repression, intimidations, forced abductions, politically-inspired arrests on frivolous charges, and the beating up of peaceful protestors.
On the economic front, Zimbabweans have had to endure over three decades of a nonperforming economy, due to ZANU PF’s incompetence and corruption.
Thousands of people lost their jobs in 1993, due to the ZANU PF government’s ill- conceived Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP), which was forcibly implemented despite public objections.
In the late 1990s, the government further crippled the economy through unbudgeted war veterans payouts and pensions, and an expensively unnecessary military adventure in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which only benefited a few top ranking officials through lucrative mineral deals.
This led to the shortage of foreign currency in the country, and the subsequent fuel and food shortages.
The economy then took a nose-dive from the year 2000, when the ZANU PF government, true to nature, embarked on a panicky, vengeful and chaotic land reform programme, resulting in massive capital flight, and unimaginable suffering for the majority of the people of Zimbabwe.
That was the genesis of the problems that the people of Zimbabwe are still unbearably suffering – characterised by increased company closures, coupled with massive unemployment and retrenchments, as well as, non-payment of salaries and terminal benefits, cash shortages, and famine affecting over 4 million people.
Those who had been prudent enough to save for their futures – through bank savings, insurance policies, amongst others – woke up to find that all their efforts had been eroded by hyper inflation, and virtually had nothing left to their names.
People were reduced to paupers overnight.
Long queues characterised everyday living, as shops laid bare without even an ounce of food, and a whole population had to scrounge around for a morsel to eat.
Parents could not, and still can not, afford to pay school fees for their children – who themselves, go hungry as food has become unaffordable.
Additionally, another 4 million Zimbabweans have left the country due to these economic problems.
The elderly are offered, at most, a measly monthly US$60 of their contributions to the National Social Security Authority (NSSA), which is not enough even for the very basics, such as, rental for a one room.
Hospitals have no medication, such that, the already burdened people of Zimbabwe can ill-afford medical care – resulting in numerous, otherwise, preventable deaths.
Furthermore, schools lack sufficient stationery, including vital textbooks, thereby, compromising the country’s education system – and future.
When these overburdened Zimbabweans decide to demand a better life, that they so richly deserve, through peaceful protests, they are met with nothing less than brutality and terror inflicted upon them by a government that is supposed to protect them.
Nonetheless, the people refuse to be cowered, and are determined even more than before to make their demands be heard and attended to.
Such is the life of the ordinary Zimbabwean, since 1980, and yet they persevere in their groaning.
In spite of deliberate efforts by the ZANU PF government to make their lives as miserable and unliveable as possible, they have always come up with a plan on how to survive
What word can best suit such a people, other than ‘heroes’, as those are the true characteristics of bravery and perseverance in the face of a concerted attack from a government that is hellbent on destroying it’s own people, and yet survive.
Let the true heroes of Zimbabwe be recognised this August, as no other group of people in this country can justifiably lay claim to such a title, other than the suffering people of Zimbabwe.
° Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice activist and commentator writer, and journalist. He writes in his own personal capacity, and welcomes any feedback. Please WhatsApp/call: +263782283975, or email: tendaiandtinta.mbofana@gmail.
Zimbabweans voted for freedom and they got it, except it’s not freedom, now they are regretting. They have voted for an un wanted dictatorship. Why don’t they go for a struggle like they did against the white regime?