By Siyabonga Madayi

WHEN we were growing up, watching television was one of our most favourite pastimes. We watched every programme with deep concentration.
The one who sang more television promos and adverts was considered more sophisticated than the rest.
In that innocence we would recite almost every advert or promo from the heart but there is one that stuck out in my heart and soul.
Today, I still recall one particular promo and sometimes, I sing it out with my peers: “You can stay as you are for the rest of your life or you could change to….”
Zimbabwe has faced criticism from all over the Western front.
Washington has murmured in anger at this small country; the power corridors in London have crossed swords too with this country and so have many capitals in Europe.
Digging deep into why this small Southern African country has caused so many tremors and threatened to upset the global balance of power, I arrive at the conclusion I grew up reciting by heart from childhood; it is a nation of people who say they will not stay as they are for the rest of their lives and are making a change.
Zimbabwe is charting a revolution in its own way.
The social, economic, political dimensions of this country remain unique because its citizens are blazing a new way of doing things.
It is not a surprise that they have written an important blueprint of black empowerment that many nations will copy.
They are the same people, who have also defined a new course in the land revolution which has provided a template across Africa.
The people of this land are pioneers of such developmental processes.
Zimbabwe has stamped an outlook that resources in the country are for its citizens.
They don’t believe that anybody can enjoy their resources while they watch all in the name of Foreign Investment.
And so it was upon the eve of the 2013 harmonised elections that the MDC met its Waterloo. The parties were punished heavily for not being cognisant of the fact that this nation is a habitat of unique history makers. A long time ago, they sent Smith and the Rhodies packing. They sent the white minority farmers packing. They have sent the MDC packing.
To them, it is about rejecting being tied to an order of oppression all in the name of, “this is how we have always done things here”.
Under the inspiration of a man who has said no citizen of this nation will ever play second fiddle to any foreigner, Zimbabweans have copied and pasted to their own personalities a personality that defies domination.
They will not be dominated economically.
They have said no to political domination by foreign ideas.
So have they looked up and said their blueprint will never come from anywhere except their own backyard.
They have sat down and written a manifesto which is home-grown pushed by home-grown solutions.
Theirs is a manifesto full of their own wishes, plans, programmes and aspirations. When their Government which they recently elected is getting down to work, these Zimbabwean people know it is working to ensure they do not stay as they are for the rest of their lives.
They have installed a Government, which runs on their own vision and what this Government cannot afford to do is to fail.
It is not the elected officials, who would have failed should such a scenario occur, it is the people themselves.
A people that have set and separated themselves apart from others now look up to an interesting future.
They wrote a constitution in a unique way that has never been in any part of the world. Suddenly voices from around the globe were looking up to the small southern African nation and asking what lessons the historic constitution making had provided.
This is all because in this nation lives men and women who are not afraid. It is not a surprise that they sent packing the British imperial armies from their own land one time in their history.
And so as they graduate their politics and economy to define their mastery upon what they own, again there will be a standstill across the globe.
It remains to be seen that many years down the line somebody will recall how the people who are ever pioneering a new change will be studied as important components in defining indigenous peoples’ wealth ownership patterns.
For once the world will know that daring to be different is no sin at all but conforming to non progressive principles can be indeed very harmful to the development agenda.
In the land of the men and women, who dare to be different lives a brave lot who would rather make enemies with outsiders but ensure their people are in control and masters of what they own.
They have said no to stay as they are for the rest of their lives.