What Mnangagwa and Chamisa said on Zimbabwe’s 40th independence anniversary

Related to this, another tragic truth is that the last 20 years have witnessed wanton use of violence in our politics.

Cases in point are what happened in the implementation of the land reform programme, while a necessary fulfilment of a fundamental goal of the liberation struggle; its violent implementation, which bordered on racism, was unnecessary, unwarranted and unjustifiable.

Other challenges of our heroic Independence over the last 20 years include Operation Murambatsvina; the shocking violence in the 2008 presidential runoff election; the 2017 political developments; the 1 August 2018 massacre of citizens in Harare which was repeated between 14 and 28 January 2019 across the country’s urban centres.

On balance, our country’s performance over the last 40 years can be assessed on the basis of key national grievances that were behind the national liberation struggle:

1. Addressing the land question to reclaim the people’s land rights.
2. Addressing the national question to unify the country.
3. Addressing the democratic question to ensure that every Zimbabwean has a right to vote and that the exercise of that right is respected and honoured.
4. Addressing the sovereignty question, which is the essence of National Independence, to ensure that sovereignty belongs the people, and not to a few individuals who call themselves the State.

The land reform programme is now irreversible, notwithstanding the fact that its implementation left a lot to be desired. Going forward, there’s a need for radical transformation by the next generation of leadership to rationalise land tenure issues and to give title deeds and promote productivity on the land.

On the national question, Zimbabweans are today more divided than they were at Independence in 1980. The liberation struggle generation has failed to address the national question. What is now needed is radical transformation by the next generation of leadership to create an enabling environment for an inclusive sense of belonging among Zimbabweans to build the kind of nation that Zimbabweans have always wanted to be.

And the hitherto elusive democratic question must resolved. There’s a need for the radical transformation of Zimbabwe’s electoral politics to put an end to the era of disputed elections. This is a challenge that the next generation of leadership must resolve.

Continued next page

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