Back to Index

Zimbabwe's betrayal
Levi Kabwato, Zimbabwe in Pictures
March 30, 2010

The headline speaks for itself. Today, March 29, marks the 2nd anniversary of Zimbabwe's much-disputed Election 2008. It has been an arduous journey since that time. And, although many Zimbabweans spoke with angry clarity via the ballot on that day, it is quite difficult to bring oneself to accept that their preferences were met.

It is a kind of systematic disenfranchisement that began way before the election itself was (mis)conducted. Once that lethal cocktail of violence, intimidation and thuggery was unleashed, it became quite obvious that Zimbabwe suffered violence and the violent would do all they could to take it.

At the time of the election, the country was going through an unprecedented economic and political (read leadership) crisis. Change was inevitable. Or so many people thought. It soon dawned on all those who had believed in and hoped for change that your will cannot be done in Zimbabwe as it is done in proper democracies. That too, is if they still thought Zimbabwe was a democracy in March 2008

Two years later, we are stuck, nay trapped, in a marriage of inconvenience and whoever said in life, the best lessons are free was dead right. Perhaps the biggest lesson learnt is that voting is not nearly the same as electing. Hence, if being in a democracy means to be governed by elected representatives then this so-called government of national unity is the exact anti-thesis to that notion.

So, since this seems to have been the only available option to take "under the Votingcircumstances", what guarantees do we have that all parties in this exclusive government are working in the interest of the people and not repeatedly raping their souls and therefore the soul of the nation?

You just have to give more solid reasons than, for example, the availability of bread and the disappearance of queues to convince people that this arrangement is working, if at all it is. Getting hyper and overexcited over the relief of having to buy two loaves of bread where you could only previously buy a half-loaf at most has caused us to ignore some fundamental issues in the last two years;

• no radical transformation of state institutions
• not dealing with a culture of fear that has eroded civic culture where people are able to rise up and question their leaders
• not exposing those who do not want to see Zimbabwe as a stable country
• instituting legal reforms by repealing laws that have led citizens to become non-citizens.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP