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NewsDay

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Editorial Comment: Politics of confrontation will get us nowhere

Opinion & Analysis
ANYONE who has bothered to follow the Zimbabwean story is bound to be very weary by now, given the roller coaster dramatic political and economic twist and turns.

Editorial Comment

ANYONE who has bothered to follow the Zimbabwean story is bound to be very weary by now, given the roller coaster dramatic political and economic twist and turns.

For two decades now, the country has hardly known peace. Since 2000, it has all been doom and gloom, and the major reason for all this miserable state of affairs has been nothing, but politics.

It has all been politics of hate, politics of violence, politics of patronage, politics of corruption, politics of expediency, politics of denial and politics of looting the country’s resources by a few powerful individuals. Little wonder the main opposition MDC is now exasperated to near frustration.

Those who have read the history of the birth of this country may well know that it was such a hard slog to wrest control of the southern African nation from rabid colonial and racist rule.

But little did anyone back then ever imagine that someday, the very kith and kin, who once united to fight for their freedom, would turn their swords on each other.

No one would have ever imagined that a day would come when the swords, which were supposed to be turned into ploughshares soon after the liberation war ended, would, instead, be sharpened to strike dead a blood brother and sister.

Under this dark cloud, the MDC has, understandably, decided to bite the bullet and resist, through protests, the tyranny that is being directed at it by the ruling Zanu PF party simply because those in the opposition have chosen to point out the wrongs of their fellow country folk, who have had the sole honour and privilege to lead this country since independence in 1980.

Outsiders continue to stare in perturbed incredulity at a people that never seem to see eye-to-eye despite all of them knowing where exactly they want to go.

Many out there are amazed at the amount of energy the ruling party expends just to accuse the opposition of being agents of regime change, ostensibly to bring back colonial rule, as if Zimbabwe is the only country in this universe that was ever colonised.

Zanu PF’s paranoia of some other party ruling this country, other than itself, is perplexing beyond belief. But after all has been said and done, all this political heckling and squabbling is destroying the Zimbabwe nation State and will definitely get us nowhere.

Surely, for how long will we live a life of confrontation? For how long will the ruling Zanu PF party refuse to be cautioned when it errs? Did those in Zanu PF ever learn anything from the 2009 to 2013 Government of National Unity, which was the only moment in the country’s sad history when we nearly got it right?

That Zanu PF decided to go it alone since that historic unity only serves to expose the political selfishness that has effectively thrown the country into the present filthy rut.

The political situation in Zimbabwe appears complex, but in essence, its solution is very simple if only the ruling party humbled itself, a position that will never erase the fact that it was instrumental in liberating this country.

If anything, by so doing, it would have demonstrated maturity and it will gain more respect than it will ever hope to gain by perpetually fighting the opposition MDC. If only the ruling party would come to understand that pride comes before a fall.