Today is another country

Stephen Mpofu
Will it be forward ever, or a change into reverse gear for Zimbabwe this time around? That was the vexing mother of all electoral questions as Zimbabweans waited with their fingers crossed to discover the big victor to usher them into another country into which August 2013 marks a point of departure. The answer came on Saturday; it is the classic, pro-povo revolutionary who was given a massive mandate by the electorate to usher Zimbabwe into a brave new future reiterated to the world press on the eve of the elections and after casting his ballot what he had stated during a whirlwind campaign across the country — that his Government would move vigorously to revive the virtually — ailed manufacturing sector while at the same time proceeding full throttle with the indigenisation and economic empowerment programme — then our nation is already as good as home and dry and into a brave new future.

The elections themselves appear to have been a clear testimony to the political maturity of the people of this country with a panoramic picture of peace and tranquillity across the country that certainly made the polls an enviable land mark on the African continent and probably elsewhere as well.

Heads of regional and international observer missions as well as those from within Zimbabwe all declared without any equivocation that the election process had passed the credibility test with a huge pat on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission for the exemplary manner in which it supervised the polls, declared free and fair.

Yes, there were hitches here and there with some voters being turned away for going to the wrong polling station, or turning up at the right place, but without the right document to enable them to cast their ballot. But that was to be expected in such a gigantic exercise and considering that these elections were on earth, not in heaven among angels.

However, the actions of several MDC-T members who ended up under police arrest and investigation tended to cast a dark shadow on an otherwise near-flawless election process. Whether the law will find them guilty of committing crime or whether they would be cleared of any wrong doing, their actions will no doubt leave an indelible taint on the image of their political organisation and its leadership with obvious implications to the overall standing of both the party in question and its leaders.

A social and economic revival campaign should take place to validate the commitment that President Mugabe made to the huge gatherings that turned up at his star rallies with everyone rearing to go to liquidate the sanctions imposed by the West and which have taken away jobs and food from the mouth of millions of children in families both in the urban and in rural areas.

Zimbabweans should realise that their destiny is in their own hands and that to expect foreigners to emancipate them from their economic woes would be to expect the impossible.

Yet there are political leaders in this country who desperately wish to have their own political destiny and the social and economic destiny of the people of our nation tattooed on the hearts of their foreign backers and whom they want to bail Zimbabweans out of the present economic difficulties.

True, the hegemonic imperialists will waste no time trooping in Zimbabwe if invited to bring their money along, but once in the country they will plunder our rich mineral and other resources and then make off with a loot bourne on their tattooed hearts, leaving behind an impoverished people and one bereft of a destiny.

But one thing appears certain and it is that Zimbabweans will have none of recolonisation, whether directly or by remote control with surrogates of imperialists crooning their masters tune. But this assertion remains to be validated or proved wrong by the final outcome of the elections.

What can be said with finality is that the overall conduct of Zimbabwean voters confounded prophets of doom who undoubtedly hoped to celebrate have failed plebiscite, but will now slam their anguished heads against the wall for a goofed prophecy.

Which is why the masses in this country should treat themselves to double celebrations and in the process put to shame those among them who are injured in the head and appear intent on spoiling the party.

First, the decision by Government for local authorities to cancel all unpaid bills in water, rates and rentals as well as for electricity owed by residents between 2009 and June this year could not have been a more fitting pre-celebration of the enormously successful polls.

Those councils have defied the Government’s order, saying it was a political move meant to appease voters ahead of elections, last Wednesday, have demonstrated a kind of political endurance themselves. The commissions running those defiant councils should be made to roast their fingers because the decision by Government was meant to relieve residents of their back-breaking burden brought about by the illegal Western sanctions that have eroded peoples earnings or quashed them all together as jobs vanished, like vapour.

Above all, however, the peace that has been the feature of the elections should prevail even long after all the results have been announced with those not victorious not running away with their emotions, while the losers should not resort to violence and with “sour grapes” a tune inciting lawlessness on their part.

Stephen Mpofu is former editor of Chronicle and The Sunday Mail.