GUARDIAN 18FORTY

Category: Democracy

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • Weak institutional environment causing Africa endless problems

    Zero accountability and increased informality is the face and failure of Africa’s systems. No system is perfect or fool proof, but systems are a reflection of the unexamined beliefs of their creators, African governments need to take full responsibility for systems in place. A critical examination of African systems indicates their reactive nature, and reactive […]

  • Why should Bulawayo motorists pay for parking?

    Some ideas sound foreign and lacking merit the very second they are aired, and they become even more detached from reality the more scrutiny is paid on them, this is true of the suggestion of paid parking in Bulawayo. This is not an idea coming from Bulawayo residents and it is clearly lacking merit. We […]

  • A need to emphasize civil supremacy over the military

  • Citizen ownership is what Matabeleland movement needs

    Ordinary citizens’ principal concern of politics within the Matabeleland movement is the distribution of power. Who holds sway in political thought and political action alike is the central preoccupation of the ordinary citizen. We seek from the leadership, justification and defence in the way power is currently distributed in the movement.

  • Why election boycott is a weak tool

    Raising questions of the credibility of the election institutions in Zimbabwe has become part and parcel of the election process. The electoral process is seriously flawed and no one has shown serious intention to fix the situation which is no wonder some Matabeleland movements are now convinced boycotting elections is our strongest tool.