WHEN a section of Zimbabwe sees the racist Ian Douglas Smith’s administration as a better devil than the second republic, it should be a cause for concern.
Those that lived under Smith's regime have scars and would not want to go that route again.
They saw his administration as cruel, racist and one in which the means of production were in the hands of a few whites and their black enablers.
They will tell you of the thousands that perished at Nyadzonia and Chimoio in Mozambique and how they lost their land and cattle, a symbol of wealth in a rural setting.
They talk of repressive laws, abductions, enforced disappearances and cruelty towards the black majority by a privileged few that had access to the levers of power.
Forty-four years after independence, the majority have not enjoyed the fruits of Uhuru.
They are spectators as the privileged few enjoy the trappings of power, splashing money like confetti at a wedding after minting cash from government contracts.
Dissent has been silenced ruthlessly if the crackdown on pro-democracy activists in the run up to last year’s Sadc summit is anything to go by.
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The same repressive laws that Smith used to entrench his position have been rebranded and remain an arsenal against dissenters, 44 years after independence.
There is no doubt that the nation is broken, with the glue that used to hold it together no longer in place.
Patriotism has assumed a new meaning where one is required to hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil. Doing the contrary earns one the tag “sellout” or “western-sponsored”.
The rift between the have and have-nots is widening, creating two worlds.
When authorities say zvakarongeka (it’s all in order) and claim to be ticking all the boxes for a stable economic environment, they will be speaking from their standpoint as most of the citizens feel the pinch. Economic stability has remained elusive.
The country is in a crisis, which is mainly man-made.
All hope is not lost, however.
To extricate itself from the hole, it should stop digging.
There is a need to harness ideas for a better Zimbabwe for all. There is strength in numbers.
The citizens know what should be done to take the country’s forward.
The second republic has no monopoly for knowledge.
If anything, its response so far shows that it has diagnosed the symptoms and not the real problem.
Toxicity has become its sole response.
It is evident that the “them and us syndrome” is bound to fail and will not take the economy anywhere.
May 2025 bring a new thinking.
It is never too late to take action. The country has been at “war” with the international community and its citizens since the turn of the millennium.
It is a war that Zimbabwe cannot afford to pursue a quarter of a century later.
This is the right time to beat our swords into plowshares to turn the country into an upper-middle-income economy in five years.
Government alone cannot take the country to the promised land.
It requires all hands on deck.
