It is never too late to change, we have finally come to the realisation that inaction and indifference are taking us to the nearest political dumping site; political change and progress in Mthwakazi will not happen through us sitting and thinking about it but through action.
We have fully grasped that folding our arms and adopting a position of complacency is no way of gaining and effecting political change and progress; we cannot encourage, equip and empower our people by doing too little.
The tragedy of Mthwakazi politics has not been in our failure but rather in our complacency. We have allowed ourselves to live far below our capabilities; we have done too little to generate a real headache for the ZANU PF and ethnic Shona biased government systems. Now we have a moral duty to take whatever legitimate steps at our disposal to reclaim political authority within our space. No action is too small, all seemingly tiny revolutionary acts are necessary to highlight our plight and will be even more important in disrupting our comfort zone – the everyday complacency, and force us into a proactive, objective, efficient and effective political model.
It must by now be ingrained in our generation that complacency is a wholly anomalous feature of political change, progress and empowerment. Change and progress is by its nature a continuous feature and as the Mthwakazi political evidence shows, it is extremely unkind to inaction. The Mthwakazi political suffering is a by-product of years of internal political stagnation that has seen those with the expertise and resources to act choose not to and those who have acted have done so for personal, and not national gain.
What would take Mthwakazi to change its behaviour if the current political injustice is no motivation? We must seriously confront the ramifications of inaction and we have shown in the past, we can; time and again, we have led the political revolution; our major let down has been our misdirected willingness to sacrifice our national interests for the wider modern-day Zimbabwean state interests. This is no secret; these interests are almost exclusively driven by the majority ethnic Shona population interest.
Inconsistency on the part of our politicians between what they say and what they do, between word and actual conduct on the ground risk reducing the pro-Mthwakazi agenda into a political pantomime thereby undermining political credibility. We need to maintain a credible position of clarity in what we want as a nation. We cannot on one hand demand for Mthwakazi autonomy yet on the other be receptive to ideas of wealthy and privileged local opportunists obsessed with ruling over the modern-day Zimbabwe territory. These individuals are clear about their presidential aspirations but lack clarity about how under their leadership the Mthwakazi political space will be transformed for the better.
If anything, these individuals have little to no objection over the continual alteration of Mthwakazi to suit Harare’s interests. The Zimbabwean constitution is in form and practice not above ethnic bias; it does not guarantee the rule of law because that was never its intention but to protect the exclusive interests of ethnic Shona people. Within this context, joining hands with modern-day Zimbabwe focused individuals and organisations does not start to serve Mthwakazi’s interests.
A quick perusal of our political history manuscripts clearly indicates that something went seriously wrong from the generation immediately before ours right into ours. We were once a revered, brave and heroic nation, that was for a reason; we are very clear of the heroic efforts of the two Mthwakazi kings – Mzilikazi and Lobengula – to secure our political authority and national safety; however, we have entered a period of complacency and allowed Harare authorities to turn Shona creed into law that presides over the Mthwakazi people and political space.
Our responsibility now is to transform the Mthwakazi socio-political space from one that makes people feel safe to one that makes people safe. We need the courage to change conditions that support our suffering. One such condition, among many, is complacency. We have two choices as a nation: either we rebel against Zimbabwean systems keeping us in bondage or we settle into depressed complacency.
Politics is an imperfect product of human creation, and in it nothing happens by accident; the Mthwakazi political situation is no different; it is a creation of years of internal and external political complacency which amounts to negligence. Complacency has cost us a peaceful living within our socio-political space, it must be shattered without delay before it makes a permanent home in Mthwakazi.
MTHWAKAZI INDEPENDENT 