ZIMBABWE AT 40: Have we forgotten where we are going? Do we know?

Every single year we have an Independence Day in Zimbabwe it is a bit dreary isn’t it?

In 2020 it is a bit dark. Take the global issues away we have to accept we are in one of the darkest economic periods in our lives.

Corruption used to be something we pretended was an outlier. It is a reality.

There are groups who are said to run the country economically and we have been told by the cleverest people to accept it and hope for their benevolence.

Then there is the basic poverty. Most of the people who sit in decision making positions are not the average person. Have you seen the boards and task forces? None of them have poor people to bounce ideas off. Noone from the ghetto or a rural area. But those clever people must dictate to the poor what needs to be done. Someone from Borrowdale Brooke creates policy for Dulibadzimu.

And yet.

The backbone of this country is the poor and disenfranchised. They define what a country is. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link and as long as we sit in silos and pretend that being poor is their fault or worse that their existence is a function of probability we are in danger.

It is now the accepted design of the Zimbabwean Life.

But in all of this we still have a massive number of people who are talented, capable and willing. Yes some of them have been corrupted by the political play of the day but talented they remain.

The moment exists to do something special in Zimbabwe, a unified approach to a dream. The story of Zimbabwe exists. But as long parts of it remain ensconced in partisan rhetoric there will be a struggle. The unification will come in allowing the youths to lead themselves, women to lead themselves and everyone finding a way to do it together from their own perspective.

No dream must be muted as long as it lends to tbe collective good going forward.

We have gotten close to it many times. The collective rise when Kirsty Coventry won Olympic medals, when the Mighty Warriors played at the Olympics for the first or the Gems did the most at their maiden Netball World Cup in 2020. So that we can rally behind a cause is not without precedent.

But is there a dream? What do we want to be defined as Zimbabwe? Where is the destination ? Many of the highs and lows are the story of a free Zimbabwe. But what can you say is the one thing, the push, the dream, the fix, that isn’t some policy document but a deep-seated feeling? What is it that will transcend the politics, tribe, religion, sex, the works?

Those who can fix it can.

And when the dream is found they will be more diligent.

But can we keep an eye on a dream if those who are meant to safeguard it are the ones killing it?