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Stephen Mpofu

Today young and old Zimbabweans – even those aided by walking sticks and might not live long enough to reap their expectations – all look forward to brave new futures.

Let us all go back to colonial Rhodesia before 1980 and you (yes, you) will find people different ages being driven by the same wishes and expectations as those that reign in the hearts and minds of people as is the case today.

However the African leaders in the years of colonial racism did not sit on their laurels while the black people of this country suffered racial degradation as if they were animals but, driven by a joint spirit of patriotism left the comfort of their homeland to mobilise from exile in neighbouring countries, in our case Zambia as Northern Rhodesia and free Tanzania among other states to take arms and free their motherland from foreign and blatantly racist rulers who regarded blacks in this country as being no better than animals that inhabit the bush.

We who were in exile at that time – this communicologist working in independent Zambia as a journalist trained at the Africa Literature Centre in that country’s town of Kitwe in 1963 along with students from Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa saw the Emmerson Mnangagwa (now our revered national leader comrade ED) enduring difficult lives in exile along in Lusaka with other exiled African liberation leaders as they strategised on the liberation of our motherland.

A joint spirit of patriotism reigned in the minds of exiled as well as other leaders back home with a brave new Zimbabwe motherland as their target.

Young men and women were organised and thrown in the fray to liberate their motherland and come April 18, 1980 it was goodbye to British colonial rulers and thanks to the indefatigable spirit of heroism among the youth who brought about independence, freedom and self determination as we live it today.

Unfortunately, however along the way the joint beloved motherland spirit that united Zimbabweans in the armed revolution to bring back home their abducted freedoms appears to have been dissipated by the love of political power among our own people at the expense of the joint national patriotic ideology and infiltration of opposition political parties by imperialists seeking a return to power over our people appears to be to blame.

For instance, how else does one explain political prostitution between some western imperialist countries and members of non-ruling political parties in Zimbabwe that seek to be hoisted to power by foreign powers that yearn for a neo-colonial presence in our country?

Indeed, it is no exaggeration by this pen to suggest that some of those politicians opposed to Zanu-PF are disappointed at the failure of western economic sanctions to remove Zanu-PF from power as that also puts paid to any chances of the opposition political fellows being hoisted to power.

That Zimbabwe has withstood the effects of the illegal western economic embargo and – come to think of it! – is the fastest developing economy in Southern Africa right now, should herald a new development dispensation by the young people of this country under a national joint youth development ideology premised on the mantra that “a country is built by its owners”, propounded by our beloved President Mnangagwa. 

The onus on this must lie on all our national leaders as mobilisers of youths for national development and not as throwers of stones at political opponents in the craze for political power.

Academic and tertiary institutions must propound the collective or national joint development ideology so that graduates pursue their studies with no illusion about what money hard to get by their parents or other sponsors is when all is said and done for the national economic and social development and stability of our motherland.

It should also behoove on patriotic Zimbabwean companies to help sponsor students as a way of creating a new national development force under a joint national economic and social development ideology which is wont to also herald national unity, peace and stability, values that the President obviously referred to on his address at Mushagashe Vocational Training Centre in Masvingo to mark National Youth Day on Wednesday.

However, it is no exaggeration by this communicologist to suggest that if measures are not taken by the powers that be to strengthen this country’s currency as a reward for good work done by workers in general, youths will export their developmental expertise to countries with more attractive salaries at the expense of our own desire for skilled personnel and developmental successes.

However, the good news is that Zimbabweans in the diaspora are keen to help finance young people back home to acquire skills for national development, witness R40 million forked out by two Zimbabwean diasporans in South Africa Mr Never Ngwenya and Mr Lancelot Sithole for the construction of a modern high school in Simanje Village, Tsholotsho district, to provide education and eventual skills for national development by young people.

That gesture is bound to catalyse Zimbabwean diasporans elsewhere to finance academic education and skills training elsewhere in the country for social and economic development of their motherland, provided of course, that the hard-earned money is used for purposes for which it is meant.

Let local companies and individuals emulate the charitable gestures by diasporan Zimbabweans whose hearts remain at home.

Propelled by a national patriotic development ideology, with Zimbabwe’s youths in the forefront just as they took the lead in the liberation that brought uhuru to our motherland, this country will take the lead in the third world’s economic and social development run and remain untouchable to the end of the world.