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By Pearson Mbendera.

Harare, Zimbabwe. (News of The South) -With an economic and political crisis that has spanned almost two decades now, the country of Zimbabwe is in need of some serious restructuring if it is to have a bright future for its citizens. But with so much division among the people, it doesn’t look like the possibility of cooperation exists among the people, and yet, there is need for people to cooperate and forge a strong charge towards economic development, something that has been missing in the country for so long.

At every turn, the policies that have been introduced by the government have been met by strong criticism and resistance, without much emphasis on the alternative direction the nation can take to move forward. It is easier to oppose, you just have to look at one side, to come together and improve that which people regard as the wrong approach is something hard to come by.
The opposition is feeding on that division, trying to use it to garner support to eventually topple the government of ZANU PF. If people hate ZANU PF, they will definitely not vote them. But while this can win them votes, and ultimately the elections, it will leave the nation torn apart, divided, at odds with each other.

And while the opposition has been pulling on their side of opposing the policies introduced by the government, the government has been adamant in forcing the acceptance of such policies on the people, creating an ‘us and them’ scenario that can be viewed from either side.

Even during the era of the GNU, where all the parties were in government, that division still existed. It was one government, but there still was MDC and ZANU PF, and even when people look back at that time, they don’t see the parties working together, they try hard to partially allocate the contribution made by each party to the nation.

And it isn’t the leaders of the parties that are divided, but their supporters too, some even willing t shed blood to advance the cause of the parties they support. But for the nation to succeed, for the nation to prosper, it needs all its people, working hard, working together for the greater good, and not to be hostile against one another.

During the war of liberation, there were times when the ZIPRA forces and the ZANLA forces fought each other when they had an enemy to fight. The spirit of division was planted in us during the colonial era, by the whites that used the divisions we had to exploit us. And while we fought one another, based on tribal differences or whatever reason we saw fit to go against each other, they were busy making money and enriching themselves, while we shed the blood of our brothers and our sisters. And today, we are still divided. We talk about unity, about working together, but that’s just talk, and talk is cheap. Actually working together and being united is what counts.

When you look at it, before the bond notes were introduced, there were people just waiting to operate black market dealerships that would see the value of the bond notes, which had been pegged at par with the US dollar by the government, dragged down to make the bond notes undesirable and force them out.

It is one thing to have doubts over the bond notes, but to deliberately work on ensuring that they fail is another thing. But that has been the order of the day, that’s what dictates the lifestyle of the majority of the Zimbabwean population. For some people to gain, some have to lose, there has to be a winner and a loser in every situation, and never the creation of a situation that will see everyone walking away happy with the outcome.

Not that I’m supporting the bond notes, surely, had I been the one in charge, I would have come up with a different solution, but now that they are here, can’t we work together? In a nation that is crying of cash shortage, can we really justify the hoarding of that cash just so one can make a quick buck, and can we blame the government when the economy goes down because we have been glorifying the kind of behaviour that can only lead to the demise of the economy. Granted, with the way things are, they actually favour such a behaviour, but is that a justification. With people having bundles of money enough to start businesses, the only businesses they are interested in is the currency trade, whose only end result, is devastating to the nation. But who really cares, its never about the nation is it?

Where will this takes us? The fighting and the division, the tug of war. So what will happen next? Will we continue with this nonsense that will see us at odds with each other over every issue or will there come a time when the people of Zimbabwe come together as one and work to restore everything that we have lost as a nation. People talk of the national pride but its something that doesn’t exist, not here, not in Zimbabwe, where people are interested in division and working against each other than they are in helping the economy.

People talk about the change of government and a lot of changes that need to be made, but for the nation to move forward, the change that is needed is the change in the attitude of the people towards one another, because, we may change everything else, but as along as we are not united, we will find it hard to develop. This, will be our greatest hindrance into a prosperous future for all Zimbabweans.

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