The Sunday News
Zimbabwe this week commemorates Heroes Day and Defence Forces Day, events that define our country in a big way and also chart how the republic of Zimbabwe came about, even as captured in the country’s Constitution that the country was a product of a struggle.
The week is pregnant with history shaping events from the Zanu-PF youth and women’s league conferences, the holidays to the 34th Sadc Heads of State Summit in Victoria Falls that will see President Mugabe taking over leadership of the regional body.
The country will for a week be showered with the splendour of palpable African solidarity whose crowning moment would be the elevation of our President.
However, it should never be forgotten that the journey into this liberated Zimbabwe was a long and painful one that cost many lives. It took commitment from men and women who took up arms against the white settler regime alongside resilient ordinary Zimbabweans that fed the fighters and provided moral support.
It also took the support of other African countries and friends from other continents for the struggle for independence to be prosecuted successfully. As the nation remembers those that sacrificed their lives for the freedom of the majority, it is quite crucial for Zimbabweans never to take the peace that we enjoy for granted and never to forget their history, which tells us that those that we vanquished yesterday have not given up on shipwrecking our revolution.
Some of the key goals of the liberation struggle were the political independence of our country that accorded our people the dignity of choosing their leadership through an electoral system, something that was reserved for whites before independence and having access to land and other natural resources and full enjoyment of rights as an African people.
Thirty-four years into independence the country has done well in the fulfilment of most of these though following the successful redistribution of land the West slapped the country with sanctions to torpedo its land-based economic reforms.
The country has been under siege since then and we believe the spirits of our heroes shall not rest until we achieve final victory over imperialist powers. It is in this light that we welcome messages of support from the region and the show of confidence in the leadership of Zimbabwe by the region that converges on Victoria Falls this week in pursuance of closer regional integration to deepen African solidarity and bring to life the dream of our heroes of a developed, united and peaceful Africa.
Swapo youth delegates at the Zanu-PF youth conference said on Friday that President Mugabe had provided “brave” leadership in the face of Western regime change machinations and that he was an inspiration to the continent. “We come here to proclaim to you that Zimbabwe under the leadership of Cde Mugabe is the bravest on the African continent . . . we are inspired by the fact that Zimbabwe is the only Sadc country that fully owns its country and economy.
We are proud that it is the only country that has successfully managed to deal with the forces of neo-colonialism,” said Swapo youth league spokesperson Cde Job Amupanda. He went further to celebrate the successes of Zimbabwe saying that economies of countries in the Sadc region were built largely by Zimbabweans who run many institutions in the region.
It is quite interesting that foreigners admire the strides that Zimbabwe has made in economically empowering its people but there are Zimbabweans who fail to appreciate such developments and the fact that the country is under siege due to such moves.
As one of our liberators, President Mugabe is an embodiment of the revolutionary zeal and sacrifice and is better placed due to his brush with a harsh history and his scars of the current economic revolution that is being weighed down by our erstwhile colonisers through their sanctions.
The regional blocs should map out ways of overcoming such challenges and supporting each other’s economies through increased trade and political co-operation to sterilise Western regime change politics that seeks to rob us of our resources.
Coincidentally, the theme of the forthcoming Sadc Summit on natural resources and beneficiation resonates quite well with the goals of our liberation struggle and our current economic programme showing the common national aspirations of southern Africa.
