DEMOCRACY is supposed to be rule by the people for the people. It is upheld by constitutions. Not just national, but companies, clubs and political parties, etc, all have constitutions to regulate fairplay by the elected leaders of those institutions.
By A Mbire, Our Reader
Our country has a history of overriding the Constitution. Examples that brought ruin to Zimbabwe are the building of the National Heroes Acre, National Sports Stadium and Rainbow Towers Hotel without budgetary approval. Similarly, the awarding of huge pension payouts to the war veterans in 1997.
Joining the Democratic Republic of Congo war in 1998 without parliamentary approval and the land grab at the turn of the millennium, raiding companies’ foreign currency accounts several times merely through directives from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).
Printing of money leading to one of the world’s highest inflation rates. The conversion of peoples’ wealth from United States dollars to worthless bond notes, again on the whim of the RBZ governor John Mangudya.
Sweeping aside the rule of law for political expediency and giving impunity to murderers, rapists and the corrupt.
The whole idea of having a Parliament is to debate laws to ensure that they meet the people’s expectations of good governance, constitutionalism and democracy.
The actions of Zanu PF leadership have had a huge and devastating effect on the country and changed the whole direction of Zimbabwe with no proper debate in Parliament, just rubber-stamping of disastrous policies. The SIs we have seen have all been fraught with errors and have often had to be reversed or modified after throwing the country into confusion.
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The opposition MDC came into being to fight this misrule as a movement for democratic change. It was formed by diverse groups from communists to white commercial farmers. The membership had one thing in common — to fight for democracy.
In the interests of the generality of the supporters of the movement for democracy, we need to stop relying on the courts to dictate what is right and wrong and go back to our founding principle — democracy.
