OUR fortunes as a nation will only change when we realise we are the masters of our destiny.
Our neighbours and the international community have a limited role in resolving our political and economic problems.
Zimbabwe’s neighbours and international partners will be invited to our problems by the urgency we manifest in tackling the decades-long crisis.
The truth is that only we live and know how this national dislocation hurts.
They visit our political crisis from time to time, but we live in these crises.
We have all along acted as though we have outsourced our problems.
We get disappointed when the world fails to act according to our expectations.
These expectations are widely misplaced and reflect both national immaturity and collective abdication of our responsibilities.
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We must get this very clearly: The Southern African Development Community, European Union, United States, Russians, Chinese, among others, owe us absolutely nothing.
Our problems are relevant to them in so far as they hinder or aid their foreign policy priorities.
And their domestic constituencies inform their foreign policy choices.
We are of interest to some of them for what our natural heritage offers them, that is lithium, platinum group of metals, cobalt, rare earth metals, diamonds, chrome etc.
It is thus incumbent upon us to normalise engaging in inconvenient conversations to unlock our intractable problems.
Our political and economic problems have metastasised and require all-hands-on-deck.
A national dialogue to resolve the majority of our problems is both urgent and critical and cannot be postponed.
It is the opportunity present in the current crisis of legitimacy for President Emmerson Mnangagwa, relevance for the opposition and a brighter future for all.
National dialogue requires courage and wisdom and stands a good chance of finding a durable solution to our problems.
Calling people to the streets is the easy bit and does not require wisdom at all.
Any fool can throw an insult and a stone. We must have a dialogue about our broken selves and our broken country, top to bottom.
Our Constitution has already been mutilated and needs fixing.
The police, military and intelligence services now serve individuals and not citizens and that must be fixed.
Our core values have been poisoned by the toxicity flowing from our politics.
We have no sense of right and wrong and have normalised corruption as a subculture.
The state of our opposition and non-profits mirrors the mediocrity and baseness of the ruling party.
A national dialogue cannot be left to Zanu PF and Citizens Coalition for Change only.
A national dialogue must expand the tent to take full advantage of the beautiful minds and talent that Zimbabwe has produced at home and in the diaspora.
Labour, our vibrant and creative young people, faith-based organisations, women and business must all have a seat at the table to craft a new Zimbabwe.
An important part of this dialogue is exorcising the ghosts of our traumatic past such as the liberation war, Gukurahundi, Operation Murambatsvina and the election-related violence.
When we take full charge of our destiny, our neighbours and international partners will get a cue of our intentions and determination to build a new society.
The commitment to national dialogue calls for love of country over partisan concerns.
Trevor Ncube is chairman of Alpha Media Holdings and host of ICWT
