THERE are many reasons the August 23 2023 general elections are being widely viewed by those inclined to progress and development as momentous.
But one that stands out is the symbiotic relationship between ZANU PF and the masses as was the case once again during the ruling Party’s second campaign rally at Nyele Primary School in Bulilima, Matabeleland South, last week.
That this pervasive sentiment is shared by many across the board is mainly premised on the inexorable fact that while this one is already in the bag for ZANU PF, with the masses having responded to the call to endorse the development that has been taking place in the country over the past five years, its only headache is whether to up the ante or not in the remaining rallies.
This is because election is about paving the way for Zimbabwe’s unobstructed prosperity by interring Western countries’ hawkish antics in the country.
It is about putting an end to their seemingly never ending provocative interference once and for all.
Crucially, the masses, forever on ZANU PF’s side, have already showed the direction in which the tide will flow.
And the past has dutifully taught us that the opposition are merely bridesmaids in the general scheme of things.
While Western countries have pulled all stops to separate ZANU PF from the people through their innumerable nefarious activities, the enduring liberation struggle and economic empowerment pacts between the masses and the ruling Party have had a lasting effect in ensuring that the country does not fall into the hands of outsiders and their acolytes who garrulously flaunt themselves as the opposition.
Within the country’s borders and outside, especially where the West and the opposition are concerned, there is this misplaced notion that economic sabotage will somehow thrust CCC to the coveted State House.
But where the past month or so has been characterised by those irritating antics, the opposite has been true because this country has a history which binds the masses to their country’s ideals and values – a history that compels every citizen of this country to hold firm and dearly in their hands.
Electoral contests only help strengthen those lasting ties.
That has been the message in the two rallies that ZANU PF has held so far.
That too has been the message since the days of the liberation struggle; the message that has manifested in unprecedented economic empowerment of the masses — the message that has uplifted the livelihoods of the majority.
This is what August 23 will be about.
It will be about preserving that legacy – the legacy of prosperity, the legacy of the people of Zimbabwe who are feeding the nation, who are tilling the land for record breaking tobacco and wheat production, record breaking gold production.
This is the message that the man at the helm, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, has been driving home.
And the fruits of his administration are right before our eyes.
Herein lies the opposition’s conundrum.
Where ZANU PF is not only singing prosperity but is delivering to the masses, the opposition is typically trying to reincarnate the past that delivered nothing for the majority through disrespecting national symbols as was the case recently with opposition ‘leader’ Nelson Chamisa who, despite frivolously claiming that he represents the ‘new’ could not connect with the current national anthem and was singing ‘Ishe Komborera Africa’ to his equally out-of-sorts camp followers.
We leave it for now.
“We are the ones who brought liberation to this country while they (colonisers and CCC owners) did not want to and we took the land after defeating them and we became independent,” said President Mnangagwa in his address in Bulilima.
“So we must vote for ZANU PF to defend our independence, our freedom and make sure we defeat the pretenders, the detractors.
“It is a vote for accelerated development, a vote to remain masters of our own destiny.
“A vote for peace, a vote for unity and a vote for harmony.
“We will never have another party that will tell you that you are the reason for the liberation of the country.
“They came with us ZANU PF, ZANLA, ZAPU and ZIPRA; we are together, united as one people. Throughout our campaign, whether at ward level, I want to tell the candidates to preach peace, unity, harmony and love.”
This, said President Mnangagwa, was the reason the people of Zimbabwe should always remember that the country came through the agonising war of liberation.
This is the same struggle that the West, together with their opposition acolytes, want to erase from the people’s minds.
“We have to remember where we came from; the legacy we fought for, a legacy where we, as black people, rule over our own land,” he said.
“You have the responsibility of building this country; you have the burden of carrying forward the vision of our founding fathers; the vision of unity; the vision of love; the vision of unity amongst us.
“There is no Manyika, no Mukorekore, no Ndebele — all of us are Zimbabweans, sonke, siyezwana.
“When we went to war, our major grievance was land, our land.
“Our land had been taken away from us, the people of Zimbabwe, ichitorwa nevauyi, varungu. Tikati kwete.”
The choice for the people of Zimbabwe, which is simple and has already been made, is to do away with those who naively dream of handing the country back to our erstwhile colonisers.
Manicaland and Matabeleland South have responded in kind; it is now over to other provinces and it will only get better!
