By Takunda Chimwaka
“True leadership invokes servant leadership, empowering the people is empowering the future. A good leader does not seek to have people in his pocket, but seeks to fit in people’s pocket,” said His Excellency President Emmerson Mnangagwa in one of his speeches.
Proponents of regime change in Zimbabwe have oftentimes described the Government as an “autocratic regime, a regime which does not respect the will of the people”.
The same proponents accuses ZANU PF of vote buying by distributing hand-outs to pro ZANU PF supporters, l beg to differ.
My open question to the opposition fraternity particularly the MDC would be that, is it not also the MDC which had its primary elections marred with violence due to imposition of candidates, is it not the same party which is robbing members to contribute exorbitantly to ill-fated party programmes as its former financiers are disillusioned by the abuse of funds. Does this entail democracy and servant leadership?
ZANU PF as a party empowers and capitalises on the people because the party leadership truly recognises that their power lies in the hands of the people.
How can one expect to benefit from the ruling ZANU PF Government when all in his or her mind is to oppose? Opposition members oppose for the sake of opposing even in circumstances where they are supposed to benefit as a people.
Government is for the people and the people are not ZANU PF only, l wish if this can make sense in the ears of the proponents of change.
The Government has made tremendous efforts to support youths and women through various programmes, for instance Vision 2030 in the mining industry, where all youths are welcome, but the opposition fraternity snub such initiatives and decide to label it corruption which is made to benefit the elite.
Recently, on 25 October, Government called for a collective anti-sanctions march for the betterment of the people, on the other hand the opposition fraternity organised a counter protest and rubbished Government efforts.
It is a clear reflection of pro-anti progress minds which are perpetuated by selfish leadership who benefit tremendously from the donor funding at the expense of their party members and the general population at large.
It does not need to see through an eye of a needle that, youths in the opposition fraternity are often used as political slaves. Political slaves who toil day and night mobilising for new membership without any resources back up whilst their leaders live lavishly in their mansions.
After attaining the power which they desire, there is no coming back to these youths to capacitate them, rather they are made to sacrifice even more in the name of ‘fighting for a better Zimbabwe’, but is it true? The answer is a big NO!
Absence of servant leadership in the opposition fraternity will always make the vulnerable society that is women and youths even more vulnerable. They cannot be calling for creation of jobs by Government everyday whilst there are no initiatives to create jobs within their circles.
You cannot get employment by terrorising police officers or manning party headquarters all day and collecting extra parking charges from motorists and you call that employment creation. It’s just another form of corruption from a non-progressive mind.
It goes without saying that, ‘just like freedom, truth is not cheap, yet both are worthy more than gold. What is freedom if there is no truth? And what is truth if there is no freedom? Both are worthy fighting for.’ I quote Suzy Kassem.
Fighting for our freedom does not mean fighting amongst ourselves. We have our servant leadership fighting for the people and on the other hand we have a sector of the people fighting to impress the oppressor.
ZANU PF cannot be said to be the oppressor because it has been proved to be the people’s choice. Considering how the party has been performing in the past harmonised elections coupled with its present performance in the present by-elections and its people centred policies, l call upon the opposition fraternity to accept the truth and fight for our economic emancipation as politically, Zimbabwe is already free.
