#ZimbabweAt40 reflections

I am inspired by knowing that if I sacrifice for a cause and focus on changing mindsets, Zimbabwe might be a better place for all Zimbabweans. The future of Zimbabwe is in our hands. 2016 saw the rise of social movements which shook the Zanu pf regime and led to the hijacking of the peoples movement. 

Eventually Zimbabwe managed to remove Mugabe from power. All activists, opposition parties, the ruling party and people all over Zimbabwe united to remove Mugabe from power and took to the streets wherever they were all over Zimbabwe. Yet it seems we fought against the individual Mugbe but not the system that can re-birth even worse.

Today, why are we failing to unite to fight against corruption, poverty and neocolonialism? We are failing because most people are greedy, selfish, egocentric and power hungry. We have more that unites us than to fight personality battles. If political leaders do not want to unite for a cause, I am urging Zimbabweans to find each other and stop being used by political leaders to fight their own egocentric power struggles.

It is time that we focus on rebuilding Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has failed to develop and transform in 40 years whilst China became an economic powerhouse in the past 40 years. We can make Zimbabwe a trillion dollar nation in a few decades, if we all focus on a Zimbabwe Development Agenda.

Bad politics has failed Zimbabweans. We need a paradigm shift of mindset to move from fixating ourselves with politics and propaganda to being more involved in growing Zimbabwe's economy, creating wealth and equitable distribution of resources. 

In the struggle that we have,  are we not the change that we are looking for? Are we not the change that we are looking for? No one is coming to save us. We only have ourselves to move Zimbabwe forward and save Zimbabwe.

Let us stop the antagonism and join #ZimbabweAt40 movement which will unite Zimbabweans in their diversity and push development first before politics. 

When we are united for development, we can surely make Zimbabwe great again. If we have unity of purpose, we can surely overcome corruption in our country.

Rome was not built in a day and neither will we get the results we desire overnight. The struggle is real and for us to achieve the results we desire, we have to persevere,  be tolerant with other,  patient, respect each other, have love for one another and stand up for each other.

We should simply sanitize our politics and work as a nation towards creating a conducive economic environment for growth and development. Our way out and forward is our natural resources and human capital

If our president calls for a national emergency that clamps down on wasteful expenditure, pointless imports of Bugattis and luxuries, punishing currency trading and corruption, if the national emergency forces people to use forex only for production, we can prosper our nation.

I sincerely hope that my fellow countrymen will use the time that we have during the lockdown to come up with development strategies to move Zimbabwe forward.

#TogetherWeCan make Zimbabwe great again!

Linda Tsungirirai Masarira 

LEAD President