Zim can kiss salvation goodbye
ILOVE watching South Africans in action! One thing I admire about these people is that they do not brook nonsense from their leaders. Granted, the country appears on a downward spiral — eerily similar to what we have witnessed in our own Zimbabwe — but the citizenry can never be faulted for not trying.
Over the past week alone, I have seen (on their news channels) ordinary South Africans protesting over poor service delivery in their respective communities, with the issue of water provision being primary.
In fact, during my stint in our southern neighbouring country, my first job was with a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that assisted people in less privileged societies.
This provided me a front row opportunity to study how South Africans in the grassroots operated.
As a matter of fact, I found myself at the centre of one or two of these protests by virtue of my work.
As much as I stayed in Crowthorne (Midrand), when there was mass action in the nearby Olievenhoutbosch settlement (in Centurion), in which our NGO operated, we were invited to be part of the crisis meetings to deal with the situation.
These were meant to address the grievances raised, calm tempers down and engage relevant authorities.
Those involved in the meetings were community leaders, members of business organisations, NGOs operating in the area, religious leaders, law enforcement (Saps) representatives and of course relevant authorities (whether local, provincial or national government).
In so doing — as much as there could have been deep and even anger-filled disgruntlement from the community — with frank and honest discussions, solutions were usually found.
Thereafter, the demonstrations were called off — after the conditions agreed upon during the meetings had been fulfilled.
At the end of the day, whatever grievances the people previously harboured were resolved, and life became a bit better than before.
I do not want to over-glorify the success rate of this approach — since there were, indeed, a handful of times that the community and authorities failed to find each other.
However, from my own personal experience, success was more likely than failure.
In other words, if citizenry come together for a common purpose largely yield positive results.
Nonetheless, there is something those with an eye for detail may have already spotted in this narrative.
In all these protests and mass actions — as communities demanded their rights — there was a glaring absence of political parties.
This was not by coincidence but by design.
The communities in South Africa understood that politics and politicians by their nature were divisive.
The main objective of any political party or politician is the attainment and retention of power — with the subsequent trappings of access to resources and social status.
It is never about the ordinary people.
The only reason political parties and politicians come to the citizens is for their support and votes.
This is on account of a condition that comes with democracy — which demands those seeking power to get the public vote.
That is the only reason they come pretending as if they care for us and desire only the best for our wellbeing.
It is all a huge big sham.
If there was another way of achieving their ambitions without going through the people, they would never come anywhere near us!
Besides, if their motives were purely for the upliftment of our standards of living, why would they resort to fighting for power?
Why hate and fight each other merely for an opportunity to serve one’s people?
It is never about us. That is the brutal truth. So, let us not be so gullible.
As such, in their quest for political power, the modus operandi of any politician is to sow seeds of division.
This is done in the hope of attracting supporters to their side while painting rivals as terrible individuals.
As a result, communities are divided along partisan lines — meaning that they can never pull together for a noble cause.
In actual fact, political parties and politicians will whip up emotions, usually taking advantage of legitimate grievances.
Yet, this is never done for the benefit of the ordinary citizens, but simply for political mileage and scoring cheap points.
In most cases, the community loses at the end, since divided people seldom succeed in pursuing their demands.
Going back to the South African example, if these communities had allowed politicians to be involved, the mass action would have been reduced to a mere political campaign.
Furthermore, half of the community would have distanced themselves from the demonstrations — on account of not wanting to be associated with those seeking the downfall of their political leaders.
For that reason, there was never any political sloganeering or grandstanding during the mass actions.
No one went about chanting for or against any particular political party or leader.
These were genuinely organic community initiatives.
People from all political parties, and even those not aligned to any, stood together for a cause.
Let us not forget that when a crisis hits a country or community, it does not discriminate on the grounds of one’s political leanings.
That is exactly what we witness here in Zimbabwe.
Whether we are struggling because of a failing national economy or deplorable service delivery in urban areas, no ordinary citizen is spared.
It does not matter if these national challenges are attributable to the ruling Zanu PF party or to our local authorities run by the opposition.
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