A call to action

IT would be nice to write that Zimbabwe is at crossroads.

This would imply that we, as a country, have reached some sort of inflection point.

That soon, there would be a give and things would change for the better.

Sadly, this is not so, Zimbabwe is in a continuous morass of ill fortune and tragedy.

The reason is simple: nothing and no one is working to change the status quo.

All the people of this country can do is sprinkle their suffering with ribaldry and decry their suffering in their more somber moments.

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It seems as if we the people of Zimbabwe have an illogical hope that our lot shall grow so pitiful that someone or something shall assume agency for our destiny.

This throughout history hardly ever happens and when it does, it doesn’t usually turn out well.

The truth of our circumstances is that Zimbabwe has been captured by a malevolent and malignant force.

This is perhaps best illustrated by the appalling video doing the rounds of Zanu PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa absolutely bursting with glee at the unlawful detention of opposition activists (a young innocent child is among the number).

How can any moral person take such enjoyment at robbing his fellow citizens of their freedom?

This shows that Zanu PF appears to be the mortal enemy of the people of Zimbabwe who have chosen to exercise the sovereign right to elect a government of their choice.

The most worrying aspect of Mutsvangwa’s Press conference was the sight of the gallant young man sitting next to him.

This young man, shining with the good life, power and prestige also seemed to be having the time of his life; chortling at this wanton disregard of the laws of the land and the sacred rights of the people.

This shows that Zanu PF has schooled its next generation well, they too will be just as vicious and callous as their mentors.

Zimbabweans, therefore, can discard whatever hope they might have had that time and death will set them free from the depredations of Zanu PF.

The tyrants in waiting have been groomed and are already in their apprenticeships.

Zanu PF was voted into power in 1980 through a largely free and fair election.

This election marked the beginning of Zanu PF’s socio-political contract with the people of Zimbabwe.

A nation-State is built around this socio-political contract, a group of people come together and agree to cede some of their rights to the State on the understanding that the State will, in turn, guarantee the citizens their rights.

The election is the arbiter of this process.

Citizens of a country vote to choose the organisation and people that will lead them.

During this process, people vote with the tacit understanding that the person of their choice might not get to lead them, but undertake to be bound by the results of the electoral process because they participated in it.

This is done under the assumption that the electoral process will be free and fair, that, therefore, no individual will be unfairly prejudiced.

A stable democratic government has to be underpinned and underwritten by a free and fair election.

One in which every citizen has an equal chance of seeing their chosen candidate being elected.

An election result only becomes binding if the process is fair because such an election gives due consideration to every eligible citizen.

Once an electoral process is corrupted, the government that comes out of such is illegitimate.

It has seized power and rights from the people versus having the people cede them to it.

A rigged or dodgy election attacks the very foundation of the State.

The people, therefore, have a very natural right to fight to regain those rights and restore the integrity of the State.

Zanu PF has, in effect, usurped the sovereignty of the people.

If people in their majority vote against a political party, it means they have rejected its vision for the country.

Everything that party does from there on will be for itself and not the people.

In a free and fair election, the people retain sovereignty and their choice is final.

In a corrupted election, a political party assumes sovereignty guided not by the common interest as derived from the universal aspiration towards the common good but its own parochial, sectional self-interest.

Zanu PF has through its actions put itself above the nation and its people.

In turn, a sizeable if not major proportion of the population is excluded from the affairs of their country.

This is illegal and immoral.

Zanu PF lost all claims to legitimacy in 2008 by refusing to concede defeat in an election it had clearly lost.

What has ensued since then is a government by force.

In the spirit of a constitutional democracy, Zanu PF voided the contract through which it governs the people.

Therefore, we, the people, are no longer under any moral obligation to continue to cede all or any of our rights to it.

At this particular point in time, Zimbabweans have a moral obligation to free themselves from this government.

The situation in the country is no different from that which obtained pre-1980.

Zimbabweans have to launch not another war for independence, but struggle for independence through persistent, fearless and peaceful activism for their sovereignty.

Zimbabwe does not need another war.

Indeed, it is the greatest mistake anyone could make because Zanu PF actively pines for a pretext to descend on the people of Zimbabwe so that they remain traumatised and pliant for the foreseeable future.

The failure by we, the people of Zimbabwe, to rise up and free ourselves is cowardice of the most shameful kind, cowardice which is well rewarded by our endless suffering and subjugation.

If a foreign power were to attack Zimbabwe, would any of us take up arms to defend our families, homes and way of life?

One fears that the answer would be in the negative because we are arrant cowards.

Zimbabweans are a conquered people and vassals of Zanu PF.

That is why the latter does not accord us any rights, this is the point that Mutsvangwa was driving home in his presser.

The salient point is that Zimbabweans do not have a moral obligation to submit themselves to the Zanu PF government.

This is a call to action to every Zimbabwean to rise up and reclaim sacred sovereignty over their lives, their country and its future.

It is said that the brave person stands up once with a chance of carrying the day or dying in the attempt, the coward, meanwhile, dies many times over in their obsequious surrender to the oppressor.

We, the people of Zimbabwe, are dying many times over literally and figuratively, I know that a part of me died as I watched the obscene show put on by Mutsvangwa.

We have failed ourselves and our country.

• Rigid Kondongwe is a political commentator. He writes here in his personal capcity.