Category: Democracy
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Expanding citizen participation is required to save democracy and Matabeleland
Less citizen participation in democracy reduces effective functioning of government because the representative nature is lost in decisions taken by government. It is becoming obvious that representative democracy is failing in Zimbabwe. We are of the view that less citizen participation – a direct result of the inadequate representative democracy – in political decision making […]
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Let’s talk about food security as part of the struggle
Conquering food insecurity is a global political and economic challenge. It has to be the focus of every Matabeleland political movement, and it can be achieved. Causes of human starvation often have a human component and are hardly unforeseen. Eliminating hunger off the face of earth is possible but you must have a leadership willing […]
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Deal with, don’t ignore tribalism in Zimbabwe
You can observe the same old trick of marginalisation in all aspects of Zimbabwean life today. Ethnic groups are fighting. Tribes are fighting. These fights are not just random fights, there are voices instigating them. We may not want to accept it, but hate is deep-rooted amongst some people in Zimbabwe using tribe as a […]
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Participatory democracy is Matabeleland’s best approach
Vital questions that cannot be ignored in our socio-political space are those to do with the threat to the community’s right to being; we want to be at the centre of whatever happens in our community and to be the centre of what happens in our community. We insist that for Zimbabwean politics to do […]
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Sinn Fein lessons for Matabeleland smaller political parties – patience pays
For years we have lamented that for many Matabeles the hope of a new era of equality and prosperity promised by the Zimbabwe independence in 1980 and later, the Unity Agreement of 1987 has failed to materialise. Years of political instability left Matabeleland underdeveloped in all areas; the region has some of the highest levels […]
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Why didn’t ZAPU of the last generation do more to combat ZANU tribalism?
Bashing ZAPU of yesteryear is not the objective of this article, political enlightment is; the situation in Matabeleland today is too dire for us to act from habit—to re-enact again and again the same solutions that brought us to our present extremity; today we are in no better position than we were during the colonial […]
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Public influence on policy shows no sign of growing
Core to the functional feature of a political system is who runs things or rather who does the system permit to run things because this determines the shape, capability and responsiveness, that is, the ability of institutions to facilitate desired actions in a timely manner. The consistent feature of the four decades of independent Zimbabwe […]
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The error of surrendering your power because you do not know you have it
If we are to predict the future, we must be prepared to have the power to shape the future. The good thing is that we all have power to transform the political landscape of Matabeleland, the bad thing is not everyone knows they have got it. To use power effectively we first have to know […]
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A call for Matabeleland citizens to fight despotism
As part of our contribution to the Matabeleland political movement, our last article delivered a message to all Matabeleland leaders, in it we made plain our aversion to real or perceived support of despotic governments or leaders. Such behaviour would be frowned upon for its obvious detrimental effects on Matabeleland public aspirations and betrayal of […]
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Pay attention to who your leaders idolise
You can cut through the tension in Matabeleland’s political environment. What we are facing is the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate political development and the people’s ever-growing need for a better life. This is a critical stage in our political development and we need to find a way to celebrate our diversity and debate our […]
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