2018 elections: Re-igniting the enduring national values

ANTAGONISING a certain truth does not invalidate its popularity nor does it decapitate its prominence.

In a polarised polity, it is fashionable for political analysts to take a side and after all it is normal that analyses is underpinned on biases.

However, manifestation inevitable paralyses predispositions.

An analyst may selectively abhor certain realities in pursuit of saccharine — and yet toxic manipulation of a gullible mass.

The past years of Zimbabwe’s split patriotic consciousness when the country was nudged in partisan proclivities of belonging has created a culture of languid analyses sustained by blind loyalty and partisan sycophancy.

Political grammar is largely underpinned on what certain sections of the academia have been conditioned to hate or sympathise with.

In the same manner, the Zimbabwean thought leadership has been characterised by applause validation for advancing particular discursive scope(s).

As long as one projects a thinking which disparages the establishment in the court of public opinion they loot accolades of being excellent academics.

In this ecosphere of superficial and fictional acclamation of selective truths adverse emotions towards the establishment is incentivised. The indolence to questioning hate to the establishment has since popularised hashtag politicking.

Indeed, there has been too many anti-establishment hashtag enterprises which have built the momentum to the much anticipated 2018 plebiscite.

The road to the 2018 election has not been immune drama within the ruling and other political parties.

Factional politics grotesquely manifested in the last quarter towards the finishing line.

Tsvangirai was called to somewhere beyond the blue and yet Cde Robert Mugabe is getting himself to rest and reflect at the Blue-roof mansion. It’s all “blues” to the old faces of power in both Zanu-PF and the factional wounded MDC (s).

While both icons have been summoned by circumstances to rest, it is now clear that individuals come and go, but principles and institutions last forever.

As such, it is important for us to introspect and retrospect the underlining doctrines of what delineates our nationalism — though the integral and cohesive reality of a nation is subject to debate in political science.

However, this does not supersede the heritage that our liberation legacy offers. Over the years, the same liberation narrative has been dismissed as a Zanu-PF motor-engine to accelerate the tempo to loot political capital. However, the problem of this logic is that it distanced its proponents from the epicentre of power.

This is because real power resides in the narrative of our struggle and how it informs our collective mandate to consolidate its values and preambles. This is why the memory of our raise to be a nation is now safely preserved in the nation’s supreme law — the constitution.

We are a nation no matter how others propose that the very urgency of being Zimbabwean is cut apart to gratify

of the irrational subtle attempts for secession.

The inclusion of these values in the constitution vividly captures how significant and perennial these are in terms of moulding the social, economic and political aspirations of all Zimbabweans.

Therefore, as we go to choose the country’s next Government it is essential to reflect on the permanent interests which sustain good governance in our motherland.

On that note, this article seeks to refresh our consciousness on these principles that bind. They also shape our hopes for a better country as deemed by the anti-colonial struggle. The thematic fundamentals our liberation legacy have not expired and are relevant to curving the present and the future.

Since these normative grounding of our national aspirations is permanent; this means every generation has a mandate to preserve those ideological essentials.

The battle for state power

The key justification of the nationalist movement’s existence was to initiate the transfer of state power from the racist UDI to a Black majority Government.

The UDI symbolised the capture of African liberties. As such, the role of nationalism was to restore the dignity of the Africans which was lost at the arrival of Rhodes’ dismemberment (Pioneer) Column. The quest for the transfer of state power was essentially founded on the need to dismantle the legacy of defeated Black aspirations and the people’s right to be free from subjugation.

Today we confront yet another battle for the shifting of state power from the current government by the opposition.

However, the ruling is a different type of establishment from that which Rhodesia was; as a result the current desire for the shift of state power is informed by a different context.

This is a context that places Zanu-PF at the centre of privilege — emanating from history since this is the party that dislodged the Rhodesian centre of power.

However, what is important is that this particular election largely depicts the momentum associated with the fights for power transfer which characterise any election.

Will power shift from the ruling to the opposition? In the event that this shift does not occur; this will be a clear indication that nationalism still curates the agenda for Zimbabwe’s development.

The armed struggle was a broad initiative to reclaim the lost sovereign dignity of the African populace displaced through the ruthless colonial laws since 1893.

The liberation agenda was meant to reposition Africans to be masters of their destiny after the successful capture of their freedom. Thereafter, the nationalist agenda was to set the parameters of the new nation’s interests.

Key among these interests was to ensure that the newly born Zimbabwe was going to have absolute selfdetermination outside the external domination.

This is a permanent character of the nationalist legacy which is still an integral part of our present day fight to ensure that Zimbabwe’s political and economic policies provide the benchmark of sovereignty.

Of course this comes at a time Zimbabwe has been in the fight against America’s illegal imposition of the Zimbabwe Development and Economic Recovery Act (2018).

Therefore, as Zimbabweans vote it must be clear that the country’s territorial and diplomatic security is key, but most importantly Zimbabweans must be cognisant of the patriotic mandate they have in nurturing the “Zimbabwean Dream” which is not predetermined by borrowed perspectives to democracy and good governance.

Another central pillar of our liberation struggle was the fight for democracy while there are numerous submissions which explain the phenomenon of democracy.

I argue that this is a concept which offers normative provisions for those who govern to draw consent for their legitimacy from the governed.

This is why the fight against Smith was justified and draw its support from the masses. This is because his regime was illegal. It was an oppressive machinery to the liberties of the African.

As such, the phenomenon of democracy is as old as the nascent stage of the anti-colonial resistance. Our people resisted to be governed by the oppressor.

Therefore, in remembrance of their sacrifice in the fight against tyranny it is crucial for Zimbabweans to understand that this election stands to safeguard the time immemorial principles of having a governing body which is endorsed into power by the people.

The wealth of the nation

The thrust of the Chimurenga was to realign property rights and ownership. The armed struggled was aimed at bringing back that which was stolen from the African people by the colonialist. This included vast tracks of arable land, mineral rich areas and access to wildlife. The African became a trespasser in the land of their birthright.

The fight against the system that was instituted by Rhodes and his scions by the nationalists was to ensure that Zimbabweans reclaimed their lost wealth.

As such, this election is about voting for the party which recognises that place of the indigenes in the economic scheme of things.

It is about enabling those who are not of Zimbabwean descent to be welcomed to invest in the country — at the same time imparting skills that will help to grow Zimbabwe’s economy.

There is need for Zimbabweans to vote for a party which recognises the need to align property ownership with a view to secure the indigenous’ mass contribution to national economic development.

Equality forms the social base of our political culture against a background of the racism that the nationalist generation fought.

As a result, it is important that we vote for equality based on equal access to opportunities as well as distributive policies which ensure that basic needs such as health, education and other social enmities are not a privilege for the few.

If social binaries based on nepotism and despotic social imbalances are successfully crushed national unity will be a reality. Therefore, it is key for Zimbabweans to vote bearing in mind the need for the nation to unite. This is because from the outset, what liberated us was our unity against oppression. Therefore, our prosperity depends on unity.

That way peace and prosperity will be a defining mark of our political landscape. Therefore, Zimbabweans have a mandate to vote for unity and other founding and permanent national principles. A LOT has been said about teachers which is correct as far as their plight is concerned.

Who will represent the suffering school heads who are abused by the ministry.

School heads have huge responsibilities but there is no salary at all. There is no responsibility allowance, to make matters worse school heads cannot afford a car because of their small earnings but they are quiet about it. They will learn it the hard way when they retire.

National Association of Secondary School Heads (Nash) and National Association of Primary School Heads (Naph) are toothless bull dogs as far as the welfare of school heads is concerned.

Some school heads administer nearly one hundred teachers and look after one thousand learners, anything that happens at a school, the head is responsible.

School heads deserve a descent salary in line with their social standing in the society.

On the contrary they lose examination papers in public transport because they don’t have transport. They are seen carrying bags in public transport which is contrary to their status.

Last year school heads were abused by the minister when they were called to come to Harare for heads conference.

There were many threats from the minister and the secretary. Some school heads sold cattle to attend the conference.

It is from this background that I decided to quit the ministry on early retirement because I felt that was very bad.

School heads are sometimes proud that they are about to strike but there is no cake for them.

They are just a suffering lot. During the days of the new curriculum they were abused and threatened but I am surprised by their silence. Maybe they enjoy the little salary that they get.

The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has nothing to do with the welfare of the workers but interested in achieving its goals.

In conclusion the minister should not threaten teachers but recommend solutions of the problems.

Retired school head, T Ndlovu, Bulawayo.