As the countdown to year-end begins lest we forget the bumpy road we traveled throughout the year in 2013.

We are now in December, it’s summer, and the heat is unbearable but political tensions have cooled down. There’s been a lot to write home about but very little to be proud of. The year ends under a dark cloud of poor service delivery. We spend most of the day without electricity while condemned to consume unsafe rations of water from local authorities.

In 2013 we saw the sailing in of a new constitution but questions still remain unanswered on whether to decentralize or to go the devolution path. The year was full of drama especially coming from the August House as some of the elected legislators were caught with their hands in the cookie jar of the Community Development Fund. This didn’t come as a surprise as their intentions were clear from the first day that they took office. And for their efforts spent on heckling and trading insults in Parliament, they were rewarded with hefty ‘sitting allowances’; very expensive cars and some even demanded residential stands as exit packages.

It was a competition to break the world record in flying hours as political parties in the inclusive government globetrotted to drum up support for their different causes at the expense of the ordinary taxpayer.

As the political game turned out to be nasty in 2013 we were subjected to hurling of insults and obscenities. Fellow countrymen and women especially from the Civil Society were accused of unpatriotic behavior and prison became a second home for human rights defenders.

We endured threats of election every day during the life span of the inclusive government and by grace the year 2013 brought an end to these threats. In politics its either you win or lose and the most difficult part is moving on. Up to now the debate on “credible” or “free and fair” rages on but a few still have the energy to engage.

A new government took office but the challenges have remained the same.

The announcement of the national budget was postponed owing to the liquidity crunch and as if that was not enough to kick start a new five-year term in office we got a taste of another Operation Murambatsvina some urban dwellers bracing for government’s clamp down on the so-called illegal structures.

Here’s an important contribution to the discussion on democracy in Zimbabwe. Vince Musewe is an economist and author based in Harare – his contact email address is at the end of his article.

Never, has so much been owed by so few to so many.

My name its Vincent Tichafa Musewe, I am an African who by God’s design, was born here in Zimbabwe so that after I am gone, this place will be a better place because I have lived. After all that is true leadership.

I therefore must share with you my idea of Zimbabwe. It is not what I see today.

We must revive our economy as a matter of urgency but more important, we must tell a new story about our beautiful country. We must invest a new narrative, a new paradigm so that out of our bosom, may be born a new beginning where all Zimbabweans regardless of race can live up to their full potential.

We must hurry and be gripped by the creation of those circumstances we desire most without being cowered or being afraid. After all, fear is a mental construct.

We must create a country where all are free to pursue their dreams without limit; a country whose unimaginable wealth can be utilized to eradicate poverty and lack; a country whose resources are applied to the benefit of all and not to the benefit a few men and women simply because they have access to arms of war.

My ideas and inspirations in creating a new Zimbabwe are based on one undeniable truth; that any nation that does not create freedom and liberty for its citizens to live up to their full potential will in turn, never attain its own full potential. The people must come first and their happiness and development must therefore be nourished, protected and preserved so that our country can truly become what we imagine it to be.

The dignity, security and prosperity of every Zimbabwean enshrined in our constitution were not fashioned to be applied at the whim of our leaders, but these are non negotiable rights for everyone born Zimbabwean. It is a non negotiable instrument that cannot be returned to sender. We must demand that this government meets its obligations.

In my opinion, no economic blue print no matter how clever and intelligent it may sound can ever create the conditions necessary for progress until the values of those that lead us change. Economic blue prints hardly excite me simply because we have had so many of them. Let us therefore be careful and not be complacent because the days are dangerous.

To our politicians:

I do not care how many degrees you may have; how many doctorates and academic accolades you may lay claim on, if I see young Zimbabwean girls in South Africa or in Harare becoming prostitutes to make a living so that they may feed their children back home.

When I see small burnt children at a hospital that cannot treat them because there are no medicines, I don’t care what car you drive.

When I hear that Zimbabweans are fighting off animals for fruit so that they may have something to eat, I do not care where you live or what designer suit you are wearing.

I care less for the sophisticated English words you may use in justifying your entitlement to power when I know that my brothers and sisters in the Diaspora must take three jobs so that they may survive and also look after their siblings at home.

When pensioners who worked for half of their lifetime cannot buy food, I am not impressed by the way you walk or talk.

I care less for the balance in your bank account when I hear that a large number of young mothers are dying from cervical cancer or that two million Zimbabweans will go hungry this season. When I see desperate youth wonder how each day will turn out because they are unemployed.

What use are your degrees in history, philosophy, rocket science, medicine, politics if those degrees lead to wide spread poverty, depression and hopelessness? What use are they when we know we in Zimbabwe have some of the largest mineral resources on earth including vast fertile soils yet we are facing an economic calamity? They are useless.

Never, in my opinion, has so much been owed by so few to so many.

The Zimbabwe I seek to create will have none of this.

Unfortunately I do not see this Zimbabwe I dream of coming tomorrow. I know, however, that it is buried deep down within my soul and it was born the day I was born in Highfield. God willing, it will surely come to pass in my life time.

All we need is now is hope and a strong belief in our potential but this hope must be underpinned by action; action to do what we can from where we are with what we have to create the circumstances we deserve.

We must accelerate the creation of a new Zimbabwe that is not limited by the imagination of those that only seek personal benefit but a Zimbabwe of unlimited potential underpinned and fashioned by the free spirit of the people of Zimbabwe.

It will take a while but I am convinced that one fine day, in the steal of the night it will come.

Don’t give up!

Vince Musewe is an economist and author based in Harare. You may contact him on vtmusewe [at] gmail [dot] com

It is interesting and questionable how the Herald has panicked over the case of Tsvangirai going to TB Joshua. The report is so quick to pin point that Zanu Pf has ‘won’ resoundingly over him. I find it surprising that the man still has got that significance in their newsrooms even though previously they considered him as now an ordinary man who holds no sentimental value. Previously Chris Mushohwe has been making endless journeys to the temple after he lost his parliamentary seat in Manicaland but they never felt it necessary to mention. After attacking the prophet for the death of Wamutharika I find it laughable how the Herald is being so calculative in its language towards the prophet.

Southern African Political Economy Series (SAPES)

Policy Dialogue Forum

Topic: Towards the final resolution of the land question: principles and framework for compensation

When: Thursday, 3 October 2013
Time: 5pm – 7pm
Where: SAPES Seminar Room, 4 Deary Avenue, Belgravia, Harare

Chairperson: Rudo Chitiga
Speaker: Charles Taffs, CFU President

I am one of the people who believe that the 31 July 2013 election in Zimbabwe was stolen. First, by the obvious facts that all the SADC prescribed reforms have not taken place and for a simple reason that the electronic voters’ roll cannot by now be made available to the general public. The MDC-T leadership has taken the fore front in the fight for justice to capture back the looted vote that was taken from the people. People in return have taken a back seat on the issue and therefore continuously ask the question of ‘what is the way forward’. The MDC to my own understanding does not have the answer to that question; on Saturday during their anniversary rally they failed to answer that question. I was listening to ‘Your Talk’ by Temba Hove on 1st TV and the same question today is being asked by people.

On 3 September when Morgan Tsvangirai visited the Glenview 29 at Chikurubi, he failed to answer that question and said, “We will be visiting them, we will be visiting the chairman of the SADC, the chairman of the Troika, the Facilitator. Just to say perhaps you arrived at this conclusion erroneously. Whether they are going to review it that’s neither here nor there but what I want to do is to engage SADC, we can’t avoid engaging SADC about the facts on the ground. Whether that will have an effect, that’s a different matter.” This response to me meant that his party is not sure of what they will be lobbying for with the SADC bodies. In fact he has a conviction that their presentations to the SADC arms will be rather persuasive to alter any position that has so far been endorsed by the head of states.

On the way forward by the people in Zimbabwe, a reporter asked if people could expect an Egypt and he said, “Why should we have an Egypt and why should the MDC craft an Egypt style revolution? I have said it before that you don’t act in emotion, you act with conviction. That’s a more sustainable basis than to act with emotion. I believe further consultation with the people will reveal that the struggle has to continue but it has to continue with more conviction. People want instant coffee; they want instant solution to their plight … But unfortunately in the nature of a struggle where we are fighting a dictator using democratic means is not as instant as they expect. And I’m sure that they have to budget for even for a long haul.” The reporter quickly picked it up that there is no tangible plan that the people of Zimbabwe should anticipate from the MDC-T that can stand as indemnity to their lost cause and asked if the people should now wait for the 2018 elections for his party to bounce back with a plan and h said, ” No, no, no, we don’t plan for 2018, we plan for every eventuality.”

I am personally of the feeling that the people of Zimbabwe are all alone in their battles and there is no other way to take what rightfully belongs to them but to just wait for the hand of God to remember the land. The least thing that the MDC should have done is to organise people in the most peaceful way (not the Egypt) like they did on the 14th anniversary and make public illustrations loud enough to reach all SADC countries to show that the people of Zimbabwe are in great mourning.

Politics is for the people, of course they have got leaders but the biggest conveyors of any kind of message in the movement are the people. If the leadership, like the MDC-T’s says they can go it alone without the people like they did, it’s either that they have to have a concrete and fruitful plan or risk to lose the people.

I feel sorry for the Zanu PF Councillors. These are the bedrock, the foundation, the feet on the ground, the basis of the ruling party (again, after five years as the Opposition Party). These guys (or girls) did the footwork, went out and met the people, and got elected, even if some urban areas (yes, I am speaking as a local Harareite) where the challenges to be overcome were tremendous.

And yet… we have only just seen the results of the poll. Kubatana managed, after some prodding by me and much effort with ZEC, to get a spreadsheet today (Friday the 13th). I see 40 MDC and 6 Zanu PF in Harare. Despite being a part of the great victory, their party holds them in such disregard that they took 6 weeks to get their ZEC to allow someone to see their results! Talk about disdain for the electorate. How about disdain for the elected?

Six weeks after the elections, and we have just seen the new (very old) cabinet. But still not seen who is the party. There seems to be only one member of the ‘ruling again’ party, and his election has been announced, and contested, and accepted, and no longer contested, and analysed, and evaluated by investors, and reacted to by the market, and discussed, and rediscussed. And a bit more. But still, aside from the top, who won the posts? Do they deserve nothing but disdain?