We must change political power distribution to save Matabeleland

Political dreams of Matabeleland derailed and delayed. Dreams of access to equal opportunities for political influence; dreams of equity and equality – economic prosperity and eradication of poverty. These dreams are slipping away before our eyes; ours is a fight to keep them alive. How we do politics must change, so it serves many not just the few.

Sheer, unfettered injustice configures Zimbabwe’s political framework. Political power is concentrated along tribal lines with the Shona tribe and the elite being beneficiaries, and the average person the loser.

Power distribution must change; we must ensure the average person in the rural and urban areas, big and small, has access to equal opportunity to influence the politics that affects his life outcomes.

It is important for politics that the public ponder the following questions:

• Who is in power?
• How did they get that power?
• For whose advantage do they exercise that power?
• Who holds them accountable?
• Where necessary, how can we get rid of them?
• Are there real alternatives available to those in power?

Mainstream politics seen through main political parties in Zimbabwe consolidates power in the ethnic Shona majority and the few elites. Politics does not reflect the interests of the Matabeleland public; it is neither responsive to the needs of the region nor attentive to the average person. This is not accidental but deliberate. The system must not be viewed as broken and requiring fixing, but it must be seen for what it is, that is, it is working exactly as intended by its ethnic Shona founders and must be destroyed.

It is clear as daylight that mainstream political parties of Zimbabwe are irrelevant in Matabeleland; these institutions are designed to manage rather than empower Matabeleland. An ideological divorce from the mainstream political design is indispensable to our progress.

The average citizen must challenge the external validation seeking syndrome and stop looking up to political parties for solutions or he will forever submit to the whims of the principles of the wealthy elite.

We inhabit the same country with the wealthy elite, but we do not share their interests; our goal is for politics that shapes our lives to be reflective of community interests and values. Let’s cease being surrogates of the elites’ goals and take full ownership of the politics affecting us.

Resist co-optation by the elite and define what success would look like; we do not aspire to the goals of the wealthy elites; we have our own. The average man must focus on internal validation by building self-awareness and challenging negative beliefs while embracing authenticity and setting healthy boundaries.

Our allegiance must be to our community not political parties; it is our community’s interests that we must protect. After all, it is our neighbours, not political parties, who will help put out the fire from our burning homestead because they connect with us, they understand what the safety of our home means to us.

The best way of ensuring politics does what we need it to do is to create it. Let us be co-creators of those fundamental institutional designs that govern our economy and power distribution.

It is incumbent upon community members to decide how leaders are chosen and how these represent local interests and engage mainstream political parties and government. In most cases, our life choices must be our responsibility not an imposition by the privileged few. Decisions about form and political design must come from us.

Dominance of the elite is immoral; power imbalance is not only avoidable, but it is abnormal, unacceptable, and destructive to society. The average person must not adopt a submissive posture and kowtow to interests of the elite.

This is time for a localist revolution that will oversee the planting and nurturing of a grassroot political culture that is uncompromising and effective in its response to the current dysfunction in national governance evidenced through its damaging consequences for the average residents in both urban and rural communities across the nation.

Non-partisan traditional leadership structures must form foundations of governance structures; create a responsive legal framework to meet contemporary needs – gender equality/ equity, emphasis on environmental protections, clean economy, social welfare and healthcare systems, ensuring equal access to political influence, etc.

Resistance by local interest groups to elite interests masked as national interests forms an essential foundation of the politics of the empowerment of the average citizen. Communities must resist co-optation by elite controlled mainstream institutions. These will pretend to take genuine interest in your agenda, yet the real interest is in suppressing and marginalising the average citizen. The goal of localist interventions is to bring people together to take on the elite few who run our country today and to make the point that many Matabeleland people want a political regime and an economy that works for all, and not the few.