Today, we celebrate our fallen heroes — these were the men and women who fought for the freedom of this country from the colonial yoke.
NewsDay Editorial
Most of the names are legendary — they must surely include all those heroes of the First Chimurenga such as Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi.
The Second Chimurenga also has almost-mythical names: Herbert Chitepo, Josiah Tongogara, Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo and others.
Their achievement was that they set the country on a new path — they opened a new door.
They said to those who remained to take over the new country: “There you are guys, a new country!”
But what have our living heroes done with the dear country? What have they done with the promise?
They have ruled the country almost uninterrupted for 34 years. The result is clearly there for everyone to see.
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There are no jobs for the people. Poverty is all-pervasive with statistics indicating we are back to the 1950s.
Only the living heroes seem to be getting richer at the expense of the majority. They have moulded themselves into a selfish clique that is getting fatter while the people are getting thinner by the day.
Last week, President Robert Mugabe castigated an inept leadership in his party and continued with his metaphor of weevils eating away at the heart of the revolutionary party.
The party is the microcosm of the country so Mugabe should have seen the ineptitude decades ago.
Many column centimetres in newspapers and journals were expended exposing the corruption and ineptitude, but Mugabe did not take heed.
Instead, he continued to keep his faith in the same people he emerged with from the struggle.
The intra-party fighting tearing Zanu PF apart has not been good for the country.
As he rightly pointed out, the party leadership is expending its time and energy in nocturnal meetings trying to out-manoeuvre each in the battle for succession.
The shambolic organisation of last week’s Youth League congress has helped to bring the reality of the chaos in the party and country right into Mugabe’s face.
What the country has gone through in the past decade or so can be traced back to the same nefarious activities of senior party operatives choosing to fight for positions rather than run the country. This explains our comatose economy.
Clearly, every senior member of Zanu PF knows the country has collapsed. Most of them are businesspeople in their own right.
They see on a daily basis how their enterprises have been hit hard by their policies.
They know exactly what has to be done, but they choose not to do it because their chances of taking over Mugabe will be compromised.
They are affected like everyone else by the bad policies that are grinding this country into the ground, but they don’t wish to rock the boat because that would jeopardise their chances of taking over.
These living heroes have become the millstone around the country’s neck.
The end doesn’t seem nigh because the liberation party cadre has forgotten the values it fought for.
