Following the adoption of the principles guiding the alliance-building process by the national council, I then began a nation-wide consultation with ordinary Zimbabweans including traditional chiefs, headmen, village heads, civic groups, housewives, vendors, students and women’s groups in all the provinces. It was important to de-elitize the alliance-building discourse by devolving it to the people; to the villages, the farming communities and the town halls so as to tap into the wisdom of the ordinary people.
As the one mandated by my party to lead the process of alliance building, I can say with confidence that I found the consultations very enriching as I received further direction from the ordinary people, who expressed their wish to see the broader democratic movement working together.
From Hwange, Binga, Plumtree, Beitbridge, Gokwe to Bikita, Chimanimani, Mudzi, Mount Darwin and Nyamakate, they were all very emphatic on the need for a huge national coalition for change. I know because I personally engaged the people. And I heard them.
As a party, we have been engaging others in the broader democratic movement, far much more than those with whom we have signed MOUs in line with the directive from the people. We have been very clear from the outset that the alliance we seek goes beyond just political parties to include networks such as the church, war veterans, students, vendors, traditional leaders and women’s groups whose sonorous instructions are still ringing in my mind.
Indeed, we want to build a huge coalition for change that goes beyond party slogans; a coalition rooted in the people in their various social stations where they continue to slug it out under very difficult circumstances.
As we prepare for the voter registration exercise, we must encourage each other to register and determine our own future. This election is no longer about Morgan Tsvangirai, Robert Mugabe, Welshman Ncube, Amai Mujuru, Simba Makoni or any other political leader for that matter. This election is about us as a people and it has now become a national obligation for all of us to turn out in our large numbers and use the opportunity of 2018 to poise the country for positive change.
Once we have built this alliance—and we are well on course—we must agree on a credible policy agenda as a key signpost to the positive change we seek.
We must not only have a pre-election pact about seats and other relatively petty matters but we must agree on the fundamentals of the policy agenda that we will embark on after the next election.
Given the comatose state of our industry, our dilapidated infrastructure and the country’s despicable and tenuous predicament, it has become imperative that we embark on a transformation and not a recovery agenda. Recovery is an understatement of what we need to do. We simply need to start afresh.
Indeed, our predicament is now well beyond any patchwork. It is now about the massive transformation of all facets of our economy. It behoves upon the nation to appreciate that the new administration faces a really daunting task.
Yet it is a task that must be done.
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