Introduction Summary
Our Nation Zimbabwe is today plagued with challenges and brokenness. The challenge of our generation is therefore how to fix this brokenness and put the nation back onto the path of civilisation and sustainable development.
Our starting point can only be an honest acknowledgement that our system is broken; and taking collective responsibility for this brokenness.
We would argue that the nation must then proceed to choose between two options; 1) national reconciliation and renewal, and 2) maintaining the current status quo. Choosing elections without credible institutions to adjudicate them (as has been the case) is merely choosing the current status quo.
We believe that national reconciliation and renewal through inclusive dialogue and a negotiated settlement is the only viable and realistic option available to us in this season. We therefore appeal to all Zimbabweans and our friends from across the globe, that now is the time for each of us to take a principled position for national reconciliation and renewal
Background
Zimbabwe is broken because it’s people are fragmented and have been watching the horror of our national retrogression doing nothing.
This country was created and built by the settler administrationand liberated for our inheritance by the armed struggle. At independence Zimbabwe was beautiful, productive and organised; but today has mostly turned into ruins and desolations. At Independence Zimbabwe was the bread basket of Africa, and people were immigrating from neighbouring countries; now it has become a prolonged season of mass exodus.
A lot of hard work and sacrifice was made by the settler administration to build Rhodesia which we renamed Zimbabwe. A kindred effort was also made by our nationalist elders to embark on an armed struggle to fight against racial segregation; the gross injustice of that era. Josiah Tongogara confirms in a video statement, that the fight was against an ‘oppressive system’ towards the ideal that black children and white children would be able to live together in harmony.
Sadly, the Independence transition was very poor and monopolized; as a result, the nation transitioned from a minority administration to a dictatorship. Our ‘Independence’ elders prioritized power, privilege, subjugation and propaganda; over public service, accountability, nationhood and the truth. As a result, the new republic was founded on lies and deception, hence today’s perpetual retrogression and brokenness.
National Reconciliation and Renewal
So what do we mean by national reconciliation ? What or who needs reconciliation and how?
Reconciliation is the process of restoration, reparation, recalibration and or reconfiguration and realignment of that which is broken. Our cultural identity is broken and unclear. There is need for restoration and or renewal. Our political, governance and service delivery systems are broken. They are in desperate need of reconfiguration and renewal.
In Zimbabwe our shared cultural values are not clear neither do we have an organic and shared political system. We are largely still using a colonial system which is at a humongous variance with our cultural reality creating many contradictions between what we say and what we do. All these require us to converge in inclusive dialogue to analyse, realign and reconcile until we agree and obtain clarity on these foundational principles and values; and our words or pronouncements become synchronised or reconciled with our actions.
Present day society is also plagued with fragmentation and corruption; and we have gone through many chapters and seasons of political violence. All these have culminated in the serious trust deficit, trauma and brokenness in the nation. There is need for us to analyse and reconcile this reality; own and confront this cultural brokenness through renewal of mindsets, mending of relationships and rebuilding of trust towards healing, national renewal and cultural transformation.
The Need for National Convergence and Collaboration
There are some amongst us who believe that it is the sole responsibility of politicians to dialogue or build the nation. Can we seriously in right conscience, sit back and surrender the responsibility to underwrite the future of our children to others?
There are others who believe that it is the responsibility of the international community, United Nations and or Donor community to fix our challenges and or bank roll our nation building agenda. Seriously? Who in there right mind expect their home or development agenda to be funded by charity donations? How can a people who are supposedly ‘Independent’ continue to choose reliance and dependency?
There are also many amongst us who are sitting in the terraces or sidelines as spectators, analysts or commentators, possibly because of fear and or self-preservation. Shouting “Corruption, corruption”, blaming others and pointing fingers. When are we going to realise that the whole world is now fully appraised of a corrupt and broken Zimbabwe? The need for this season, is national convergence for sustainable solutions and national renewal.
Our nation is broken today because the good people; the righteous, the citizens, statesmen and patriots are fragmented, disengaged and or doing nothing. This apathy
or unbelief is more responsible for the prevailing retrogression, destitution and brokenness.
Heaven is waiting for the righteous and citizens to talk and agree a shared vision and blueprint for a new Zimbabwe. As it was for the people of old (the just lived by faith); it is for us today. Thanks be to God who has promised us to guard the steps of the righteous. We therefore appeal to the church and citizens, that now is the time for national convergence for the collective work of national reconciliation and national renewal
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