DEAR President Emmerson Mnangagwa,
Your Excellency, as I see it, it is apparent that Zimbabwe is bedevilled by deep-seated polarisation. Our body politic is fragmented through and through. Consequently, citizenry’s mistrust of each other has reached alarming levels.
Methinks it was not a surprise for you to hear that the gap of fallen friendships has all along been dividing citizenry. It could have been a case of feigning ignorance if ever you were surprised to hear of the wide-spread prevalence of this social menace due to mistrust.
During its weeklong working visit to Zimbabwe, the Commonwealth assessment mission noticed that the gap of fallen friendships was dividing citizenry asunder. Upon hearing this revelation, my initial response was to dismiss it as alarmist.
It sounded at face value like outright drivel, deserving a contemptuous dismissal. Yet, after intensive reflection, sound dissection prevailed. It then dawned on me that no Zimbabwean, yourself included, ever rang the alarm on the prevalence of perversions of failed friendships.
Despite our reputation of being an enlightened nation, renowned for a high literacy rate, we failed to diagnose the root cause of our national fall from grace. It was business as usual, even against your odious allusion to cutting short lives of the secessionist party leadership.
Meanwhile, like a low hanging fruit, the vice of fallen friendships had been in plain sight, yet obscured by familiarity. It has been tearing our social fabric with unrestrained abandon. Even such institutions as family and church are under attack.
We were foolhardily indoctrinated by the oftentimes recited myth that Zimbabwe was under attack by some Western countries. However, as I see it, most probably it is a paradox of life that oftentimes a visitor sees in a minute what the host will have been blind to all along.
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Your Excellency, even the wisdom alluded to in the citations of the honorary doctorate degrees conferred on you in rapid succession by three State universities, among them our oldest institute of higher learning, the University of Zimbabwe, was ineffectual.
Yet, at the close of its consultation, the visiting Commonwealth team leader implored the media that its great responsibility was to move together, to find each other, and to close the gap that divides us, which is a gap perhaps of mistrust, which is not essential.
The team’s appeal to the media was well-founded, equal to being under oath. “It is a gap of perhaps fallen friendships that can very easily come together. You have a beautiful country, and we will be so proud to see you back in the Commonwealth and we look forward to it,” the Commonwealth team leader concluded.
Your Excellency, although the Commonwealth assistant secretary-general Luis Franceshi was addressing the Fourth Estate, his counsel was the brick and mortar that build the nation. Methinks it will stand you in good stead to inoculate his probity in its entirety.
As I see it, he spoke like a Statesman than an ambassador. His speech abounded with the essence of citizenry collective accountability and responsibility. Granted, we all know that Zimbabwe is beautiful. Yet, Franceshi accentuated the beauty of the country with a novelty exhortation for harmonious co-existence notwithstanding our differences.
“Zimbabwe is a beautiful country, you should all be proud of your country and keep moving,” said Franceshi. He made all and sundry cognisant of their citizenry responsibilities. He intimated that nation building was an enterprise that was blind to political persuasions.
It was heartening that Franceshi underscored the pleasantry that the mission concluded that everyone wanted Zimbabwe to be readmitted into the Commonwealth family.
Despite the diversity of schools of thought subscribed to by the various groups and individuals who shared perspectives with the Commonwealth team, there was consensus on readmission of the country.
It is gladdening that all the groups and individuals who made presentations rose above their differences. They were in unison in pleadings for Zimbabwe’s readmission. It was a laudable patriotic confirmation of nationhood that they subordinated polarisation.
Your Excellency, it is incumbent upon you to champion the aspirations for Zimbabwe’s readmission. Methinks there is a great measure of paradigm shift that you must make. What lies ahead is a mission that calls for plurality. It is primarily imperative for you to undergo a political conversion by stopping the use of mean and horrid words on the opposition.
Currently, citizenry’s trust on you is severely depleted compared to what it was at your ascendancy to the Presidency. There was an outpouring of goodwill, tampered by benefit of doubt from across the political divide. It was the expectations of citizenry that you would be palatable, compared to your predecessor, the deposed late former President Robert Mugabe.
Your Excellency, upon commencement of your Presidency, you hastened to be ardently prodigal with the trust citizenry had deposited in you. A litany of broken promises, coupled with twice unleashing the military on citizenry compelled a withdrawal of public faith in you.
As I see it, your approval rating is at the lowest ebb. Yet, it is against this backdrop of low estimation that it is mandatory for you to transform yourself.
It is compelling that you lead the process of inculcating the culture of moving together, finding each other and closing the gap of fallen friendships. Inherently, your presidential greatness will be determined by the consequential inspiration on citizenry to embrace the humane culture of closing the gap of mistrust.
Despite avowal by Franceshi that the Commonwealth will be proud to have Zimbabwe back in the league, premonition still gnaws me. Given the brassbound readmission building blocks, our injurious culture of chaotic, violent and disputable elections does not inspire aplomb.
It is my earnest transcendent plea for rectitude to inspire you to deliver periodic addresses to the nation premised on the promotion of unity and prosperity in diversity.
Your Excellency, elimination of polarisation is a cardinal virtue, an ethical and moral imperative.
I rest my case for now.
