Tendai Ruben Mbofana
Recently, President Emmerson Mnangagwa spoke with great earnestness about the core priorities of Zimbabwe’s upcoming tenure on the UN Security Council.
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This was during his address to a nearly empty auditorium at the UN General Assembly two days ago.
Standing before rows of vacant seats, he articulated a vision centered on decisions regarding war, peace, international sanctions, and peacekeeping missions.
He spoke passionately about Africa’s “silencing the guns” agenda, calling for decisive global action against terrorism, organized crime, illicit arms flows, and illegal resource trafficking.
Yet beneath this lofty diplomatic rhetoric lay a glaring, unmistakable void: not a single word was offered to address the actual underlying causes of these crises.
Why do we even need to silence the guns and strive for peace in the first place?
What drives societies into the abyss of conflict, armed rebellion, and violent instability?
Is it not that we are plagued by national leaders who routinely violate their countries’ constitutions, refuse to relinquish power, and view themselves as anointed monarchs destined to rule in perpetuity?
Is it not because we now suffer under leaders who no longer view their people as citizens endowed with inviolable constitutional rights, but as mere subjects expected to remain docile and subservient?
Is it not because we have regimes that actively criminalize being held accountable, treating dissent, public inquiry, and peaceful protest as acts of treason?
Conflict does not emerge from a vacuum.
Is it not fueled because state leaders treat entire nations as their personal fiefdoms, feeling entitled to plunder vast mineral wealth and national treasures with absolute impunity?
Is this self-serving governance not the primary engine driving the very “illegal resource trafficking” the president purported to denounce?
We see instant billionaires created overnight through this unchecked resource theft, where elite networks freely smuggle tonnages of precious minerals like gold to foreign havens such as Dubai.
They return with millions in illicit hard cash, laundering their dirty money by grandly gifting luxury vehicles purchased directly from their own car dealerships.
Meanwhile, millions of citizens are cast into absolute poverty.
Public health systems collapse, leaving hospitals without basic medicines.
Essential infrastructure crumbles, basic municipal services vanish, and ordinary families face a daily struggle for basic survival.
When citizens’ fundamental rights are trampled, when their democratic voting rights are stripped through manipulated elections, and when those who dare to question authority are thrown into maximum-security prisons or killed, the social contract breaks completely.
Desperate citizens, denied any peaceful avenue for redress, are left feeling trapped with no alternative other than civil unrest.
That is precisely how violent conflicts, insurgencies, and military coups are birthed.
Common sense dictates that long before attempting to silence the guns or deploying costly peacekeeping missions to restore order, world leaders must focus on preventing conflict by addressing its root causes.
As the legendary music icon Oliver Mtukudzi wisely sang: tsvaga chikonzero chaita musoro uteme—one must search for the true underlying cause of the headache rather than merely treating the symptom.
Therefore, shouldn’t the primary focus of international bodies like the UN Security Council—and member states like Zimbabwe—be the unyielding promotion of democracy, the rule of law, and strict constitutionalism?
Should we not expect President Mnangagwa to lead by example at home by honoring constitutional provisions, particularly regarding term limits and national referendums?
Are citizens wrong to demand that their president speak openly about protecting democratic freedoms and respecting the rights of those who stand up against authority?
True peace requires Zimbabwe to lead from the front in genuinely dismantling corruption—specifically targeting gold smuggling, illicit financial flows, and state-sponsored resource trafficking.
Real stability demands that national wealth be shared equitably among all citizens, rather than concentrated in the hands of a ruling elite while the majority scrounges for crumbs.
These fundamental pillars of governance are what truly preserve national and regional security.
Without constitutional democracy and justice at home, any global lecture on peace remains empty pontification.
Democracy and constitutional governance remain the only true prerequisites for lasting global peace.
- Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to contact him on +263715667700 or mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com