AS we celebrate the lives of the both the departed and living heroes and heroines of our independence struggle, we pause to reflect on the ideals which formed the basis for many sons and daughters of this nation to take up arms against settler rule.
Befittingly, national shrines were established at independence in 1980: The National and provincial heroes’ acres to honour the men and women who sacrificed their lives fighting so that the indigenous majority have a right to self-determination.
Men and women took up arms to liberate this country from the settler regime that had seized their land. They also took arms to fight for universal suffrage.
Before independence in 1980, only the settler white community could vote in elections, while the indigenous black majority was denied that right.
Democracy back then, according to some scholars, was defined “as rule of the whites, by the whites and for the whites”, meaning that the majority black people had no say about who led them or how the country was run.
When the protracted war against this warped form of democracy ended with independence in 1980, a new “democratic, non-racist electoral system based on universal adult suffrage” was introduced.
The “democratic, non-racist electoral system” will be put to test for the ninth time next week as Zimbabweans elect their representatives for the next five years.
It is in this context that we implore that our heroes and heroines’ efforts should not be in vain. Neither should their sacrifices be corrupted and twisted to mean that they were made for only one group of a people.
- A tribute to heroes, heroines
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Our departed heroes and heroines must be turning in their graves in the wake of a spirited push to deny the country’s nationals the right to freely choose who should lead them.
There are some among us who are violently trying to deny the country’s citizens the right to freely make their choices through the ballot by sadistically stopping them from freely campaigning and participating in the polling processes.
This is not what our liberators yearned for. They did not yearn for a Zimbabwe in which black turns against black simply to gain or retain power.
The violence which has characterised the country’s present and past elections cannot be said to have been part of our heroes and heroines’ wish list. What is currently happening is an abomination and a negation of our liberators’ ideals and principles of a self-governing people.
It is disconcerting that in this month, a month we religiously and yearly remember the sacrifices made for our liberation from colonial bondage, lives are being lost at the hands of politicians seeking to retain power by hook or crook.
Our heroes and heroines did not fight the protracted war for a select clique to enjoy under the slogan “it’s our time to eat”.
It is an affront that lives have been lost in the month we celebrate our heroes and heroines.
Five years ago, six people were shot dead by soldiers for protesting the late announcement of election results.
A commission of inquiry led by former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe recommended compensation for victims of violence and dependants of the deceased, among others.
Nothing has been done to date. A better Zimbabwe which gives every citizen freedom of assembly and association, among others, is the best tribute we can pay to our fallen heroes and heroines.
