Citizens should play their part in Zimbabwe’s revival

The ascent and leadership of President Emmerson Mnangagwa has given hope to many Zimbabweans at home and abroad. There is a new feeling of confidence and belief of a better Zimbabwe because of the new dispensation. When a new order set in, it was reasonable for people to be happy and start to dream and pursue their dreams.

With the Government and new administration in place, it is critical to note that while Government can undertake things like setting the right policy framework, setting an effective Cabinet, ensuring policy implementation, most of the work must be our collective responsibility as citizens to assume a sense of duty and be active citizens that contribute to the development of their country.

It is citizens that must take it upon themselves to work, engage and play a key role in changing the fortunes of our country.

Government has also to identify the prerequisite of public-based policy formulation and implementation so that the citizens have a buy-in and are then motivated to ensure successful implementation and monitoring. Whatever policy the Government formulates, it must find currency with the public so that there is seal of approval. Only then can we expect the generality of the people to buy in and actively ensure successful policy implementation. It cannot be those in the high echelons of power just coming up with policy and throwing it to citizens and hope that there shall be a buy-in. In such a situation, policies normally fail regardless of how well-crafted the policies are.

On the part of citizens, the expectation and hope generated by the new dispensation should have led to self-introspection and asking of hard questions. It would seem citizens did eschew self-demanding questions as to what could be our role going forward. Instead, we hear many individuals, groupings, opposition political parties and other institutions almost in a prescriptive manner, saying what the new government must do. Very few, if any, talk about what they themselves can and must do to ensure the change we all dream of.

While one can acknowledge the responsibility and demands that go with public office, it is equally true citizens who have no contribution to the development of their country have no legitimacy and locus standi to demand any minimum standard of performance from those in power.

The role of Government should be facilitatory so that a conducive environment is created for us to pursue our goals as a nation.

Was it not the former US President John F. Kennedy who said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”?

Let us also have Zimbabweans declaring what they want to do as a contribution to this imagined reality rather than all saying President Mnangagwa must do this and that. What is your role as a young person, as a worker, as a woman, as a farmer, as an artist, as a pastor? What is our commitment and obligation to this beautiful country? Are we on the terraces or we are part of the process which is trying to bring change?

One may have heard a number of people saying, “The key things which President Mnangagwa must address are price hikes, cash shortages, ensuring democratic elections, economic stability, corruption, re-engagement with the international community and general public confidence boosting”; etc, but in the same vein, we have not heard public pledges of what they intend to do in order for these multifarous issues to be addressed.

Are Zimbabweans prepared to stop corruption? To ensure peaceful elections? Cash hoarding? What’s our role? Let’s locate ourselves in the scheme of things and commit our energies to the development of Zimbabwe without sitting on the terraces waiting for the first mistake by to leadership to make noises.

In modern states, it is citizens that must play a key role in all sectors from politics, economics and technological development while the government creates a conducive environment for citizens to contribute.

As Zimbabwe embraces this new dispensation, citizens should be awake to the demands of nation building, which rests on the shoulders of each one of us rather than just asking what the head of state and government has done or not done.

When citizens ask difficult questions of Government, exerting pressure on President Mnangagwa, they should not forget to apply equal measure of pressure to themselves on the duties and responsibilities they ought to shoulder to move the country forward.

Zimbabweans must not refrain from asking difficult questions that interrogate how they, rather than Government alone, apply themselves to issues of national development.

As President Mnangagwa put into action his popular 100-day plan, ZImbabweans must try and locate themselves in that plan so that they, at the end of the day, can express themselves in a practical manner for the realisation of the set objectives.

The 100-day objectives cannot be realised if Zimbabweans remain on the terraces or engage in nefarious activities which undermine the whole national fabric. It is everyone’s country and duty. *Kudzai Kwangwari writes in his personal capacity and can be contacted on kkudzai@gmail.com