The Sunday Mail
Teddie Bepete
At Independence in 1980, Zimbabwe was regarded as a beacon.
Three decades later, that image seemed to dissipate as we suffered an economic debacle emanating from a row with erstwhile colonisers and long-time economic partners, coupled with rampant corruption and declining political sense.
Now, on the back of a new political dispensation, many expect positive change in Harare’s relations with the rest of the globe.
A new chapter should be opened.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has always been one of the few liberation stalwarts to acknowledge the utility of capital in Zimbabwe’s economy.
He once remarked, “Capital goes where it is wanted.”
This does not mean the President is a capitalist.
Our post-Mao Chinese communist counterparts’ realisation of the utility of capital played a critical role in fulfilling the fundamental ideals of Maoism, and that brought China its modern economic status.
Opposition groups, including G40 remnants, that are attacking Zimbabwe’s new leadership are day-dreamers.
The voice of change is the voice of the people. Revolutions are guaranteed by the majority.
A far much greater majority than that of 1980 backed the advent of the status quo. The dictum “the people are the water and the fighters are the fish” always rings true as far as Zimbabwe’s struggles are concerned.
This defines President Mnangagwa’s Government as democratic, as a Government of the people and by the people.
The world is embracing our leader and should bolster his efforts to bring meaningful economic turnaround as the future of the masses who brought him into power is entrusted with him.
It is ridiculous that certain opposition leaders such as Mr Tendai Biti are still seeking international political mileage on the bankrupt ticket of puppetry.
Some ill-intended media outlets still have the stamina to churn out the outdated mantra of melancholy with pessimistic headlines such as “Unfolding uncertain future with Mnangagwa in power”.
It is not time to judge his presidential achievements, but the fact that ED has vast experience in governance spices the new leadership narrative with optimism.
One writer once said, “To be a good ruler, one has to be ruled first.”
ED understands the plot of the Zimbabwean story more than anyone else in the party. He was at the centre of it for years, and is certainly aware of how ruinous individuals can kill a naitonal project.
The new leadership has reiterated the need for unity in fostering national development.
Without unity there can be no realisation of our collective goals. The journey to the future is a collective endeavour.
President Mnangagwa has been an asset of this journey for years.
Jacky Seroke, secretary for political and Pan-African affairs in the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania, says, “Emmerson Mnangagwa holds unimpeachable credibility in the struggle for change in Zimbabwe. He survived the Rhodesian hangman when he was under-age. His death sentence was commuted to 10 years in prison. He rose through the ranks as a selfless cadre.”
Seroke goes on, “He is a courteous, amiable, honest to goodness person, who is now on a new mission to fix what needs to be fixed in his home country so that Zimbabwe can become an asset yet again in the geopolitical region of Southern Africa – just as many compatriots would want it to be.”
President Mnangagwa is showing the world that his thinking on unity and love is beyond partisan lines as seen by his visit to MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai at his residence.
This kind of oneness had never been witnessed before in Zimbabwe. It shows a new and laudable political culture of tolerance.
And the world must view us this way with appreciation and hope.
Seroke compares ED with China’s Deng Xiaoping. Xiaoping learnt a lot about both the progressive and ruinous ways of Maoism.
Which is why he introduced the “One China, Two Systems Policy” which gave birth to the prosperous modern China we marvel at today.
Here is Seroke again: “They know that it is possible to move from wrong to right in order to snatch victory at the jaws of despair … Sanctions against Zimbabwe must be dropped.
Constitutionality must be repaired and adhered to — even in the Land Reform Programme. Zimbabwe needs Foreign Direct Investment and a stimulus for economic growth.”
The United Nations must seriously consider freeing Zimbabwe from the noose of sanctions so that the new dispensation can be proved right or wrong from a fresh page.
