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Let us not agonise but organise!
Daniel Molokele
June 19, 2005

These are hard and difficult times for all of us as Zimbabweans both at home and abroad. Never have we as a nation faced such a serious crisis of purpose and confidence about our collective future prospects as a people.

The level of uncertainty, doubt, and despondency has never been felt so deeper among the majority of our people. For others, it has even turned for worse with the alarm bells of hopelessness ringing louder than ever before. The death knell seems to tolling for our country more than ever before. Indeed never before have we gone through such a time hard times as a people for such an indefinite and protracted period. It is as if we are cursed as a nation!

Whichever way one may choose to look at things at Zimbabwe today, it is hard to derive any positive inspiration form the current dire state of affairs. If truth may be told, our once beautiful country is a terrible mess. Big time!

Forget about ‘murambatsvina’, the so-called clean up exercise that the unpopular regime has unleashed on our poor majorities. There is an even bigger mess that needs a lot of urgent national attention. The biggest stench we have as a country is mainly oozing from the executive arm of state. In particular, the sour smell of abuse of power oudourating from the president’s office.

Indeed, it may be hard to find a few people who are not feeling disgusted by the level of moral decadence that has engulfed the country as a result of an evil and repressive regime. Many are of the opinion that the biggest clean up operation exercise should target the State House. There is a lot stinking stuff and illegal structures there that have really overstayed their welcome.

Indeed is not time that we as Zimbabwean s gathered our courage and launched our own ‘murambatsvina’ operation that will leave our State House clean?

Is it not time that we stopped agonizing about the odorous stench of abuse of power emanating from the presidency and decided to clean up the evil mess once and for all?

My message this week is simple and straight forward. My message to all Zimbabweans both at home and abroad is as follows; ‘let us not agonize but let us organize and mobilize!’

Indeed the time has come for all of us to stop the blame shifting processes. The time has come for us to stop passing the buck to others. The time has come to take responsibility about our future. Let us make it both a national and personal obligation to rise up and clean up the mess of this regime that has festered for over 25 years without an end.

To that end I call for Zimbabweans to start looking for ways to renew the pro-democracy agenda. I call upon all Zimbabweans both at home to start to renew attempts to share ideas and strategies. We all need to start to build networks and alliances that will help to bring a lasting solution to the crisis in Zimbabwe.

I for one have taken the step forward by agreeing to be a key part of the newly created Zimbabwe CSOs Forum. The forum is a strong coalition of over twenty civic organizations that work on Zimbabwean related issues in South Africa. The forum plans to build a viable and sustainable national platform for all Zimbabwean activists based in South Africa.

However the forum is also looking beyond South Africa. There are plans to help set up similar forums all over the world. The process will start with the neighbouring countries all over southern Africa before evolving to Europe, America, Australasia and the rest of the world.

The idea is to challenge all Zimbabwean activists and organizations in the Diaspora to join hands and forge a common national agenda in their respective countries.

The forum also has plans to host the first ever ‘international Diaspora conference’ that will focus on developing both short term and long term strategies over the future of Zimbabwe. In particular, the conference will focus on the role of the Diaspora in the nation building process. Plans have already been put in motion for Johannesburg to host the conference in the not so distant future.

I therefore urge all Zimbabwean activists who are interested in being part of this new initiative to make every effort to contact the forum in South Africa. Please, do not wait for others to respond but be the first to respond to the clarion call for a new agenda of hope for our nation. The forum’s contact email address is zimcsoforum@yahoo.co.uk

As I have already said, the time for moaning and mourning is over. Now is the time to rise and determine our future as a people in a very positive manner. Let us not agonise anymore. Let us arise, organize and mobilize ourselves into a formidable pro-democracy force that will ultimately make a difference for the good of our country and its long suffering majorities. Now is the time!

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