adminZIMBABWEANS commemorate the 32nd Unity Day since the signing of the agreement between Zanu-PF and PF Zapu on December 22, 1987.
It is imperative to remind one another that the toast to national unity was not only between Cdes Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo.
Their role as leaders was to lay the foundation of nation-building through love and peace.
It is also imperative to reflect on how the nation should continue to benefit from this historic event, without having to resort to continuous and costly processes of negotiation.
We say this because chances are very high that the current political impasse, which has in part led to the economic meltdown, might result in mediated talks between the political players.
Former South African President Thabo Mbeki’s visit to Harare this week raised that spectre since it came after the visit by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Sadc and the African Union want a stable Zimbabwe.
Since he mediated in talks between Zanu-PF and MDC that resulted in the Government of National Unity, there are high hopes in some quarters that President Mbeki will once again be a facilitator between the ruling Zanu-PF party and other political players under the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD). Only time will tell.
The million-dollar question that remains unanswered is why it has been difficult to walk the talk on unity, not just in Zanu-PF, but among the generality of Zimbabweans regardless of political affiliation, race, creed, gender and/or age?
That there was a fall-out between the revolutionary parties that fought the settler colonialists under the banner of the Patriotic Front surprised many since it perpetuated the suffering of people recovering from the effects of the liberation struggle.
But the warring parties eventually saw sense and submitted themselves to mediation by a local partner — former President Canaan Banana.
The 10 meetings were held in Parliament and Munhumutapa Building. What has changed between 1987 and the new millennium where thousands of dollars are spent negotiating peace, while the ordinary people suffer?
Agreed, agreements are not an event, but a process, but should peace and unity be such costly commodities for the common man, in all respects?
It is not coincidental that we celebrate Unity Day three days before Christmas, which is one of the most important holidays on the Christian calendar.
Christ brought freedom, love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
The unity that we embraced in 1987 came with a huge price. If Unity Day was birthed during such a season, what it means is that the people of Zimbabwe should not have back sliden.
A few days before the signing of the peace agreement in December 1987, President Banana made an appeal to Zimbabweans: “Let us love all and hate none; be friends to all and hate none; respect all and despise none.”
Wise counsel, whose meaning we are yet to fully grasp.
The belligerence shown by some among us, has demonstrated to regional and international partners that we are good at shooting ourselves in the foot.
Notwithstanding, hope is not lost.
Whoever thought that the Lancaster House Agreement would be signed, and eventually usher in Independence? The same with the Unity Accord and the Global Political Agreement.
The danger, however, is pigeon holing these agreements and using them as weapons to divide and not unite people.
Save for natural disasters, Zimbabwe should be the success story that the founding fathers and mothers dreamt of.
And the price it pays for that is not lip-service unity, but real unity.
That means all of us have to sacrifice ourselves in order to achieve that oneness.
Online Reporter