GOOD day President Emmerson Mnangagwa,
It is my strong conviction that Independence Day commemorations forfeited their appeal and significance long ago. Given the exodus of the born-frees into the diaspora, methinks ideals of self-rule were doused by the cupidity of the privileged elite.
With all and sundry bearing the brunt of socio-economic woes on one hand and being subjected to systematic curtailment of basic human rights on the other, there could not at all have been any motivation for festivities. Verily, observance of Independence Day is now a stale ritual.
Your Excellency, what independence is there to celebrate when the opposition is haunted and hunted like prey? Their freedom of assembly is basically prohibited. The contagious celebratory spirit withered when an opposition parliamentarian was caged and has been denied bail for many moons for want of justice.
An insightful thinker, Marcus Aurelius, offered a Christ-like perspective on bearing repression with equanimity. His statement: “There is but one thing, it is to cultivate truth and justice, and to live without anger in the midst of lying and unjust men,” is an enduring advice.
It is dispiriting that Zanu PF repeatedly fails the credibility test in all its intra-party elections. There are no prospects for credible national elections given the ruling party’s electoral deficiencies, as evidenced by its recent bitterly disputed internal polls.
With the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission failing to uphold its constitutional mandate to independently manage electoral processes, the basic citizenry entitlement to choose representatives of their choice is in jeopardy.
