Democracy – MTHWAKAZI INDEPENDENT

Right Politics for A Multicultural Matabeleland

Difference and diversity make Matabeleland society strong not weak, dynamic not chaotic, and difference and diversity must be preserved whatever the cost may be; difference must neither be de-emphasised, nor suppressed, nor ignored. Everyone should see their true reflection in our systems and institutions; the de-essentialisation of any individuals and groups in the region must…
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Moral decadence and Zimbabwe’s political failings

Greed, supremacism, arrogance, selfishness, and intolerance have destroyed Zimbabwe. But we can trace all that back to pre-independence; gigantic errors and misjudgements were committed when the liberation movement waged an armed struggle against colonial monsters, we did not invest in lessons on how not to be monsters. Instead we were taught to fear the white…
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Protecting citizens against state violence

Extraordinary levels of state violence against certain population groups characterise the independent Zimbabwe state under ZANU PF rule. Citizens from minority population groups are quite deliberately exposed to disproportionately high levels of insecurity and violence at the hands of state and non-state actors. Matabeleland people’s first experience was in the early 1980s in the form…
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Changing leaders but retaining poor institutions isn’t enough

Africa’s Achilles’ heel is weak institutions and limited access to justice which remain a great threat to sustainable development. Strong institutions are the pre-requisite to sustainable development, there is no substitute. Matabeleland needs a clean break from the perennial inefficiency of mainstream politics in Zimbabwe and take responsibility in building effective, accountable and responsive local…
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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…
Read more: Why didn’t ZAPU of the last generation do more to combat ZANU tribalism?

Category: Democracy