1980 euphoria got us into this mess, #Tajamuka, etc. euphoria will not get us out. By Nomusa Garikai

People get the government they deserve; after 36 years we cannot say we do not deserve this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its numerous corrupt and incompetent opposition parties.

We gave President Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs a blank cheque in 1980 to do with the nation as he pleased; we did not have a clue what was demanded of us as the electorate to make sure Zimbabwe was a free, just and prosperous nation. Mugabe had his own ideas of what the nation need, a de facto one-party dictatorship, and went on to ruthlessly impose it! Zimbabwe had seen many other African country attain their independence only for them to slid into chaos and despair as the new black nationalists became corrupt and self-serving tyrants. We should have been on our guard to stop Zimbabwe falling into the same trap; we were not!

 

It has taken the nation 15 to 20 years to finally convince the majority of our people that where Zanu PF was taking the nation was not where we wanted to go. By the time Morgan Tsvangirai and his friends came together to launch their political party it was an agreed fact that the country needed democratic change leading to free, fair and credible elections to move forward. Tsvangirai incorporated this public sentiment in the naming the party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

After the fiasco of letting President Mugabe turn Zimbabwe into a failed state ruined by mismanagement, corruption and tyrannical rule one expected the people to be a lot more vigilant and diligent in defining what democratic changes they wanted. Sadly, that was not the case. Just as the people had granted Mugabe a blank cheque to define what post independent Zimbabwe was to be, they did the same again with MDC. Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were left to define what democratic changes were required. As it turned out Tsvangirai et al did not have the foggiest what these reforms were much less how they would be implemented.

Zimbabwe has had many chances to implement democratic reforms and break the Zanu PF dictatorial strangle hold on the nation with the best chance being during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. This GNU chance, like so many others, was wasted; MDC was supposed to implement the agreed reforms but failed to get even one reform implemented because Tsvangirai and his friends did not have the foggiest idea what these reforms were, as I have pointed out about.

In a country with a vigilant and diligent electorate who understood, in this case, what the democratic reforms were about and how they are to be implemented; they would have seen to it that MDC implemented the reforms. Zimbabweans are NOT the vigilant and diligent electorate, they too like MDC leaders had no clue what the reforms were and that is why they never pushed MDC implement the reforms.

What makes our situation even worse than ever is that even with the benefit of hindsight, of the rigged 2013 elections because no reforms were implemented, the people has still not woken up to the reality that implementing the democratic reforms is the key to ending the corrupt and tyrannical dictatorial system of government Mugabe and Zanu PF fostered on the nation. It is not enough to remove President Mugabe if only to replace him with another dictator. It will not be enough to remove Mugabe and Zanu PF because as long as the state president continue to wield undemocratic powers over state institutions she or he will use those powers to consolidate their hold on power and thus create a new dictator.

What we need in Zimbabwe is to dismantle all the vestiges of the Zanu PF dictatorship and thus remove the present dictator, his dictatorial party and make it impossible for another dictator and his/her dictatorial party to emerge in future. The only sure way for this to happen is for the nation to implementing all the democratic reforms. Sadly, that will never happen unless we have an electorate that finally takes its responsibility to be vigilant and diligent with the urgency and seriousness it deserves.

The very fact that many Zimbabweans still consider Tsvangirai and his MDC friends as possible future leaders even after these MDC have already proven beyond doubt that they do not have the foggiest idea what the reforms are is itself proof that Zimbabweans are not yet ready to embrace democratic change and good governance. Following the likes of Joice Mujuru and her Zim PF who are Zanu PF in all but name makes one despair; it shows that despite all the trials and tribulations we have gone through these last 36 years, we have nonetheless learnt nothing!

Ultimately, people get the government they deserve; we deserve this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF government complete with its corrupt and incompetent opposition parties because we are a naïve and gullible nation!

The political euphoria generated by the recent street protests is comparable to the euphoria of independence in 1980, to the euphoria democratic change in 2008 and 2013, etc. All the past euphoria failed to deliver the Zimbabwe we wanted because the electorate had no clue where the Promised Land was or how to get there. The present #ThisFlag and #Tajamuka, etc. euphoria will too get us nowhere because we still do not know where we are going!