Dear Fellow Zimbabweans.
My greetings to you as we complete 40 years as an independent nation. On the 18th of April we will commemorate our 40th anniversary of Independence Day. For every Zimbabwean whether living at home or anywhere else in the world, 18th April is sacred. It is marked on our calendars as a celebration of our sovereignty. This day must not be stollen by ZANU PF. It belongs to us as Zimbabweans.
We need to know Zimbabwe is the only country we can call ours in the whole world. Those who sacrificed for Zimbabwe are not to be patronised by ZANU PF. Zimbabwe was freed for all Zimbabweans to enjoy it. We must fly our national flag with great joy and enthusiasm in workplaces, municipalities, panchayats,colleges, schools, homes and neighborhoods. On our cars anywhere.
Let us be proud Of our country. Our Zimbabwean bird is a symbol of our national pride. It is a constant reminder of our striving and our self-belief. It is a day to look back with satisfaction and gratitude for what we have been able to achieve due to the efforts of successive generations of our elders. And it is a day to renew our resolve to fill the gaps that still remain in our nation building project gaps that our talented young people will no doubt fill. Unfortunately this day marks forty years of suffering pain and emptiness. We have left our country in the hands of vampires for a long time. Zimbabwe has been bled for forty years and now life begins at forty. We have to start a new Zimbabwe which values its people first.
Freedom came to our country on the Midnight of April 17 making 18 April a new day. It was the result of years and decades and centuries of sacrifice and valour on the part of our ancestors and our revered freedom fighters. These were men and women of rare courage and foresight. They came from all regions of the country, all sections of society, all communities and all social and economic groups. They could easily have compromised and settled for some personal benefit, but they did not. Their commitment to Zimbabwe to a free, sovereign, country was absolute. If they are to wake up today they will die again with shame.
We are fortunate that we have inherited the legacy of such remarkable patriots and we will make our country work again. Our heroes left us with a free Zimbabwe, but they also left us with unfinished tasks for the development of our society, for the empowerment of the proverbial last person, for their liberation from poverty, and social and economic inequality.
Every breath in our collective life as a nation under ZANU PF is an insult to our freedom fighters and this forty year anniversary will give us a commitment to accomplish whatever is still unaccomplished which is everything. If we define freedom in narrow, political terms, then April18 marks a closure. It was the day the political struggle against an imperial power culminated in success and in our Independence Day. But freedom is a broader concept. It is not fixed and finite. Freedom is a constant and relentless endeavour. Even decades after 1980 each one of us can contribute in the manner of a freedom fighter. We can do so if we expand the frontiers of freedom and of opportunity for our fellow Zimbabweans and our beloved Nation.
Our farmers grow food for tens of thousands of fellow citizens whom they have not individually met and will never meet. But they are paid peanuts by ZANU PF. Their money is being spent by Command agriculture. Farmers are upholding our freedom by ensuring food security and nutrition for our children. But ZANU Pf Is not rewarding them. Instead of assisting our farmers by providing access to technology and other facilities for enhanced productivity and enhanced incomes, and live up to the principles of our freedom struggle ZANU PF has robbed them. This year we need to mark an end to this nonsense and build our country for the benefit of all.
Our Armed Forces stand guard valiantly on our soil but ZANU PF has only rewarded the senior ones and insulted the majority of our soldiers. They have been turned to be thugs. They can not uphold our freedom by ensuring security from external threats as they are ill equipped. We must ensure welfare benefits for our soldiers, we must live up to the principles of our freedom struggle. Our police and paramilitary forces take on a variety of challenges. In fighting crime and law and order disturbances, or even in helping ordinary citizens in many ways. In doing this, they are upholding our civic freedom. We must improve their professional and personal conditions, we must live up to the principles of our freedom struggle. Our Police force is now reduced to thugs and robbers.
Our young people, both boys and girls, represent the hope and optimism of Zimbabwe. Our freedom struggle saw the active participation of the young and the old, but its energy was provided by the young. They chose different modes or activism in their quest for liberty but their resolve and their idealism, their passion for a free Zimbabwe is being soiled by ZANU PF. Our young people had never been employed if we do not remove ZANU PF now our kids will die without seeing a payslip.
This independence we must ignite the fire within our youth, we must think again we must give Zimbabwe a chance.
On this day of our independence my heart bleeds because you are not free. We must as of now come together and rally behind ZIMFIRST. TOGETHER WE WILL REIGNITE THE LIGHT OF ZIMBABWE. Zimbabwe needs you. You and me have a job to do.
I would love to say happy independence but I am ashamed there is no Joy in our country today. No Joy until ZANU PF is gone.
MAXWELL SHUMBA YOUR SERVANT
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