We are very grateful with the works of the liberation war veterans and collaborators who fought so hard to liberate Zimbabwe from the colonial rule. After liberating Zimbabwe people in Zimbabwe did not stop reproducing offsprings. These children who were born after independence grew up into toddler-hood, early childhood, adolescence and then early adulthood. They reached 18 years in 1998. This stage ushered them into the adulthood and freedom of obtaining National Identity card.
By Masaisai Saymore
This automatically fulfilled their right to vote and make choices. At 28 in 2008, about 98% of this generation was employed in the civil sector, private companies & non-governmental organizations. Most of them were married with one or two children.
Economic hardships forced 50% of them to seek greener pastures in countries like South Africa, Australia, United States of America and United Kingdom just to mention but a few. This benefited only families of those in the diaspora. This massive immigration caused strict immigration regulations. It became very difficult for Zimbabwean citizens to keep moving out of Zimbabwe for greener pastures.
Days grew into weeks, weeks into months and months into years. 2015, ushered a new generation of young, bornfree, educated and globalised breed of youths with freedom of expression. These are the people who were born in 1985 and above. This generation is educated and not employed. They are holders of University degrees and diplomas but they are vendors. They have no room in the diaspora anymore. Their only place is Zimbabwe where they survive from hustling and being ‘conman”. Those who made the “right choice” to join the civil service like being Teachers, nurses and others have managed to survive on the salary that since they were employed was never above Poverty Datum Line.
Economic hardships continued to be the order of the day. Late payments of salaries and bonuses but this generation braced on.
Now that it is 2016, we were educated that every citizen has the right to freedom of expression which means airing out your views and concerns. We also learned that no citizen has the right to cause pain on another citizen. This is what our fathers and forefathers fought for in Chimurenga one and two. They wanted us to be free from inhumane treatment and brutality. They wanted us to be comfortable and exercise all the rights in the Constitution of Zimbabwe. Freedom of expression, right to liberty, right to life, right to education, right to protection and many other rights.
We are extremely overwhelmed that our education system enlightened us and equipped us with the provisions of our Constitution. As an informed generation we want to put the knowledge into practice. Exercise what we have learned. Exercise what is constitutional in our Zimbabwean society. As a generation we want to be involved in national process regardless of where you come from. We are not the future of the nation anymore but we are the functional members of the society who have opinions and ideas are viable in the day to day processes.
We strongly believe that we are ready to rule our destiny. It is our time to meet our life objective. It is the time to see our dreams unfolding. We have various visions which have passed the set dates. We wanted to be politicians at 30, we wanted to be doctors at 28, we wanted to be engineers at 29. All these dreams went down the drain. Those who managed to achieve were those from elite backgrounds.
From the said hardships it is the common people that have been facing the brunts of poverty. We know very well that no cabinet minister skipped a meal, no cabinet ministered walked to work, no cabinet minister’s child attended public schools or common universities. Yet we hear the leaders complaining of sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe. If Zimbabwe is under sanctions, who is suffering? It is us the general public. Poor education standards, poor medical system, poor housing, poor transport network and poor living standards. Our fathers managed to survive under those conditions. As a globalised generation, we feel that it is our generational mandate to deliver. We must wake up and become masters of our destinies.
We have a number of legends who were imprisoned during the liberation struggle. We have history of the late Edison Zvobgo, the late Joshua Nkomo and others who testified of being jailed in Gonakudzingwa. This was the works of the colonial rule to silence the black revolution. This is quite inspirational that even today we know our freedom is a result of other people’s deprivation of their personal liberty. We appreciate the job well done.
Our generation has suffered economic hardships that we feel it is not a result of our own making. We feel that the economic challenges we have been facing and are still facing are not promising to end soon. We feel that it is high time the government realise that we are grown ups and we are tired of bottling up our capabilities. We feel that Zimbabwe is a democratic nation where every citizen is free to speak out their minds. It appears as if speaking your mind and challenging unfavourable situations in Zimbabwe is illegal. Every vocal citizen of our generation is facing unlawful arrests, police brutality and unlawful detention. We have the likes of Linda Masarira, Lynette Mudehwe , Evan Mawarire and Acie Lumumba just to mention but a few. These youths have been tortured by the police only to silence us.
We want to make it very clear that as a generation, it is our time. It is our right to claim our time. Do not abuse us. You may arrest our us but you will never arrest the prevailing hardships. We are suffering and we shall continue to speak.
We are not going to remain silent. Our time is now.
Masaisai Saymore is the National Coordinator Zimbabwe Educators Alliance and can be contacted on 0717806023 or saymorefidelismasaisai@yahoo.com
