By Davet Muzwidzwa

IN my family, we are six boys and four girls.
I am very proud of my mother for labouring a total of 90 months to give birth to 10 children.
Put another way, my mother was in pregnancy for seven and half years.
Carrying pregnancy for almost a decade supplying citizens to this beautiful country is no mean accomplishment.
We honour heroes who dismantled colonialism, we should honour the mothers who gave birth to these heroes.
Why would a woman sacrifice her health by being pregnant for a tenth of a century?
After giving birth to 10 children like my mother did, mothers would be most gratified to see a happy family where children love one another.
They want to see their children cooperate in protecting their family from its enemies.
Mothers would like their children help one another climb the social ladder through assisting each other in acquiring education, jobs and marriage.
No family member should enjoy a sleep when another is in distress.
Love is the single most important attribute of a successful family.
A family riddled with quarrels, squabbles and wrangles will not succeed in its endeavours.
It disintegrates and family members will scatter away.
Even in their graves, mothers will lament the disintegration of the family.
No wonder a country is given a feminine persona.
You hear people say, “My country is Zimbabwe. She is a very beautiful country.”
A country is indeed a mother.
Zimbabwe breastfeeds and protects its citizens like all mothers do.
Her citizens must love one another and cooperate in developing their country.
They should all be committed to raise the quality of life and the degree of happiness of all.
No meaningful development will take place when a country is hateful.
If there is hate among citizens, some will dine with the enemies of Zimbabwe in a bid to settle selfish scores among each other.
In 1893 Zimbabweans united and fought their enemy, the colonial machinery that sought to dispossess Zimbabweans of her heritage.
Zimbabweans were defeated in the First Chimurenga with dignity, but they had learnt a lesson that their strength rested in their oneness.
In the Second Chimurenga, Zimbabweans had mastered the art of oneness.
If you injured one, you injured all.
ZIPRA and ZANLA forces executed decisively the Second Chimurenga that dismantled Rhodesia through oneness.
The emergency of rogue tendencies in the post-colonial era is worrisome.
After independence we began to see Zimbabweans opposing each other.
They began to move away from a tradition of oneness demonstrated in the First and Second Chimurenga.
Opposition means that if someone says ‘stand up’, the other says ‘sit down’. Without checking the facts, if one says ‘no’ the other says ‘yes’.
What happened to the unity of purpose that executed the Chimurenga wars? What ate into our brotherhood and sisterhood that kept us going during the troubled times.
We saw the proliferation of ‘opposition parties’ to oppose black majority rule in favour of liberal politics.
First was Bishop Abel Muzorewa who took UANC party from Rhodesia to oppose the popular Liberation Movements ZANU PF and PF ZAPU, which dismantled colonialism.
Ndabaningi Sithole converted ZANU into ZANU-Ndonga, to oppose self determination.
Rine manyanga hariputirwi.
At some point, Ian Smith, Bishop Abel Muzorewa, Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole and Lupi Mushayakarara formed United Democratic Front (UDF) that sought to dismantle the liberation movement.
The African in the unholy alliance found it better to work with Ian Douglas Smith than with Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo.
What a shame!
The climax of opposition politics came with the formation of MDC in 1999. MDC is accused of organising sanctions that devastated Zimbabweans to this day.
The MDC went to bed with the former colonisers to protect them from losing land to Afro-Zimbabweans.
The MDC accused the people of Zimbabwe of land grabbing.
All these opposition parties, what are they opposing?
ZANU PF says let us take our land, what are they opposing?
ZANU PF says let us indigenise our economy, what are they opposing?
ZANU PF says Zim-ASSET, what are they opposing?
It is not true that people in these opposition parties do not want Land and Economic Empowerment.
It is not true that they disagree with ZANU PF in these matters.
So, who is opposing ZANU PF if all Afro-Zimbabweans want land and economic empowerment?
It is clear that the ‘vampire states’ are opposing ZANU PF in repossessing land and economic empowerment.
The vampire states are bent on sucking Zimbabwean blood to the last vein.
Why would Zimbabweans oppose the very reasons they went to war in which so much blood was shed?
How are Zimbabweans going to benefit from independence if they oppose the land reform and economic empowerment?
Why would Zimbabweans oppose each other instead of seeking consensus in the first place?
It does not mean that when Zimbabweans do not oppose each other, there will be a one-party state in Zimbabwe.
For political parties to add value to the Zimbabwe agenda, the following protocol must be in place.
1. All Zimbabweans in various political parties must subscribe to the National Agenda.
2. Instead of political parties opposing the agenda, they would be competing to outperform each other in the implementation of the National Agenda. MDC, MDC-T, ZDP, Mavambo and ZAPU-Dabengwa and all other parties present and future will compete to do better than ZANU-PF in Land Redistribution and Economic Empowerment.
Zimbabweans of all walks of life should not be fooled to parrot non-Zimbabwean programmes.
Zimbabwean political parties should seek a competing rather than an opposing protocol.
Zimbabwe needs competing political parties not opposition political parties.
In the United States of America and some European countries, when political parties change in government, the national agenda does not change.
What changes is the house style of doing business, but the goals remain the same.