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Gibson Nyikadzino Correspondent
The star on the Zimbabwe national flag represents the State’s socialist aspirations, endeavours and ideals.
Interactions with many compatriots on the subject of the national flag and its representations have harvested a conclusion that without fear of contradiction, a lot of civic education and the resuscitation of the National Youth Service (NYS) are key in understanding these socialist ideals.
We need people to be continuously taught the fundamentals of the “Nzira Dzemasoja” way of life, to change their behaviour and have State continuity.
Socialist aspirations of Zimbabwe are not only a prerogative of the State and its policies that help people, but a mixture of a sustained relationship between the State and the people.
Where such a relationship is sustained, a bond between national policy and citizens’ expectations remains key.
Zimbabwe’s reawakening under the leadership of President Mnangagwa is an instructive development informed and influenced by such socialist ideals where the nation is rallying behind the country’s policies.
Developments in the agriculture, infrastructure, health and education sectors, among others, have spoken to what the State and people can achieve together.
Thus ongoing economic revival projects in Zimbabwe can be explained through the influences of three key people in the history of socialist development.
Teachings of Karl Marx, Russia’s Vladimir Lenin and China’s Mao Zedong have huge influences and can be linked to what Zimbabwe has embarked on.
However, it is not only Zimbabwe that has proven to be a beacon of economic emancipation as enunciated by the agrarian reform, some countries in the region are thinking of the same.
Unfolding events in South Africa over the importance of land access to the black majority disempowered by years of apartheid is shaping regional politics at a time many thought it was a discussion for another day.
A similar discussion is underway in Namibia where the government has acknowledged that the land reform exercise in that country will allow the empowerment of more blacks.
In Latin America, companies like the US-owned United Fruit Company with interests in the agriculture sector dispossessed locals and illegally grabbed huge tracts of land.
They further maintained cruelty in the workplace and a racist social order to disadvantage the indigenous people.
The company took land in countries like Nicaragua, Panama, Brazil and Cuba before the 1959 Cuban revolution reversed that.
This was the biggest challenge to white monopoly capital in the western hemisphere, to which Cuba today has been embargoed since then.
Besides adventures by the United Fruit Company in Latin America, native Americans in the USA have since been demanding land they lost since their displacement in 1621 after the arrival of the Mayflower ship with pilgrim fathers from England.
Even so, the importance of land entitlement has led some desert countries in the Middle East to embark on huge purchases of soil to start their agriculture through scientific innovation.
This is also key to improving the country’s food reserve by reducing imports.
The import to all this is that when atrocities were committed against locals in these countries, the aggressors were displacing natives from their lands with the help of their governments.
Understanding Marx, Lenin and Chairman Mao is key in unpacking the endeavours of Zimbabwe’s socialist developments espoused by the Second Republic in wealth creation and distribution.
Marx approached wealth redistribution through the class perspective in which he said the working class should have control over resources through cooperatives.
In Lenin’s view, the class was important, but workers alone could not do it without the help of the party vanguard or the intellectual core that helps address their access to wealth.
To Chairman Mao, state development is not enough without the support of the peasants.
It is not enough to establish cooperatives that are led and directed by the intellectual core without the support of the peasants.
The State is built by resolving a country’s agrarian reform that is supported by the masses.
These three approaches by Marx, Lenin and Chairman Mao have remained influential in guiding Zimbabwe’s State revival by incorporating the peasants in development projects.
Under President Mnangagwa, the government has availed people-oriented policies that have seen citizens come up with cooperatives in the agriculture, mining, and tourism sectors.
Those without capital have been availed an opportunity to access loans through available financial institutions for the youth, women, and people with disabilities.
The power of the State comes from the people and for Zanu PF to maintain the course of that power, the need to maintain this relationship with the masses is undeniable.
It is easy for the Second Republic to see that relationship for it has been there during the liberation struggle, at the height of the agrarian reform, and when the New Dispensation was ushered in 2017.
Government does not infuriate the people because it knows they hold power. The people ought to be protected.
Their protection will help envision the State’s socialist ideals and enhance fruitful results to realise the 2030 upper middle income economy status.
Zimbabweans, remember we are one!
Online Reporter