By Mokhumi Valela
Zimbabwe, my pride,
Zimbabwe, my inspiration,
Country of my predecessors,
Zimbabwe, whole of Africa’s hope.
What home is there?
When home is a reliable source of brutality and barbaric acts,
When home is being turned into a prison of innocent civilians,
When home ravages and havocs its own people’s dignity.
What pride can I speak of?
When the national emblem has been turned into a symbol of arrogance,
When despotic trends are being dished out as education in schools,
When the nation remains an arrogant monster even to its own brotherly neighbours.
What inspiration can be sourced from this gallery of nonsensical gallantry?
The courage to devastate its own economy and demolish its dignity,
The aptitude to applaud and appease its own apathy,
Apathy and affliction on its own people,
Molesting and mismanaging its own future.
How many new jobs did the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme create?
How many of the then existing employment opportunities did it close?
In which dustbin has the Free Education for All promise been dumped?
What fruits are being gained from the Look East Policy?
Is anyone still speaking of the Vision Twenty-twenty?
What national gains have come from the Fast Track Land Redistribution Exercise?
What has happened to the nation’s status of being Southern Africa’s breadbasket?
What has become of the once busy industrial areas of the various cities?
What will happen to the vast acres of land that remain preserved yet utterly unutilised?
What is our destiny as a country?
What really is our fate as a people?
Will the dawn of the burial of our tribulations ever come?
Will the sun ushering the day of our rehabilitation ever rise?
Will the year for us to become a truly liberated country ever commence?
Will we ever become the Zimbabwe we wish to be?
A nation able to absorb the jobless masses in its economy,
A nation able to provide basic health and housing to its people,
A nation able to educate its own children and grant them a future,
A nation allergic to holding out false promises,
A nation indeed standing firm against preaching poisonous propaganda to its people.
A country able to guarantee no abuse by state agents to its people,
A country able to craft and uphold its life-protecting and life-respecting laws,
A country able to depoliticise aid rendered to needy citizens,
A country able to integrate all races and tribes in its administration,
A country indeed governed by the will of the people.
Is this the Zimbabwe our heroes died for?
Is this the country that once boasted a vibrant economy?
Is this really the nation born out of a protracted liberation struggle?
A nation respected by other nations for being crime-free.
Oh! Dear nation;
You cannot erode poverty by politics,
You cannot humble hardships by inhumanity,
No! Arrogance cannot substitute achievement.
Never can the need for Zimbabwe to have media freedom be overstated,
Never can the need for Zimbabwe to be a truly multi-party state be exaggerated,
Never can the need for Zimbabwe to acknowledge employee oriented labour unions be magnified beyond measure,
Never can the need for Zimbabwe to have mature debates and debaters be embellished,
Never, indeed never, can the need to make Zimbabwe a pleasant country in which to live be inflated.
We desperately need a Zimbabwe with hope for the future,
A Zimbabwe with a focus into the future,
A Zimbabwe able to brace its self for the future,
A country able to adapt to the needs of the global set-up around it.
