Our future begins at the point where our past stops being the lead in our lives. It maybe necessary to look back at our past if only to learn how to avoid it but never to live there. Oftentimes the best way of ruining a great decision is delaying it; a propensity to procrastination and delay has hurt Matabeleland’s future badly.
We may or may not be responsible for the causes of the socio-political rot pervading Matabeleland and the associated socioeconomic disenfranchisement of the region but we certainly have done our best to look like we are the cause. Procrastination and delay, as a problem-solving technique, have brought nothing but more misery for the region.
All our important political choices have a time line, delaying decision and action is loss of opportunity that may never be regained; mind you life does not give anything limitless opportunity, it will not start doing so for Matabeleland. We need a revolution of the political system and that has to happen now, without excuses; delay only compounds suffering.
Waiting for Harare to some day feel shame and guilt within hence voluntarily surrender some power to Matabeleland as opposed to us taking the lead to creatively build a genuinely local power base will do nothing but cause delays that will lead to the forfeiting of our empowerment.
If we are sincere seekers of freedom, we should be clear on our goals; that way we will not delay our journey. I have said time and again that we seek Matabeleland empowerment not out of a desire for tribal superiority but a genuine need to dismantle (in Matabeleland) a failed Harare system purposely built on the base of ethnic polarisation and build a system based on the assumed equality of humans, a system that optimises opportunities for all Matabeleland inhabitants, irrespective of race, ethnicity, social class, gender, etc. We want to be setters (in Africa) of standards for socioeconomic and political efficiency.
While ‘planned delay’ maybe a valuable decision-making process, a default culture of delay can be deeply damaging. Matabeleland’s biggest downfall has been the delay between the identification of damaging political practices of ZANU PF and the region’s decision to respond. We live and die by our ability to prioritise; Matabeleland has to work hard to identify and build a socioeconomic and political system our people really deserve.
MTHWAKAZI INDEPENDENT 