A genuine but painful fact about Zimbabweans is that they are ‘Educated Fools’ and that is one of the reasons why the next generation will not enjoy basic human rights.
Common sense dictates that, adding up similar numbers using the same formula, innumerable times has never given different answers…one just has to change the formula if they are to get different results and so it is with the enjoyment of rights in Zimbabwe.
By Leopold Munhende
Zimbabwe’s constitution has one of the most explicit declarations of human rights but over the years Zimbabwe has failed to acknowledge those rights watching them being trampled on with little to no resistance. The question is whether or not the third generation (here interpreted as the next generation) will be able to realise and enjoy the rights this generation has failed to.The answer is a big NO!
The third generation is likely to be born within the present environment which is populated by a docile people. They will definitely grow up and adopt attitudes which are prevailing (socially and culturally), with the current political situation they are most likely to be born within ZANU PF rule, meaning the formula is still the same and therefore a different result cannot be a possibility.
There seem to be very little chance of the next generation enjoying the rights we have failed to enjoy. We just have to change the formula if we are to attain a different answer.
There are many factors which can be used to substantiate this claim chief among them being The Fear Appeal which ZANU PF has instilled in Zimbabweans.
In a normal setting Zimbabwe will be a land of strikes, demonstrations and stay aways considering the number of rights violations committed by the state. However through a network of well knit Central Intelligence Officers, the government finally got the ball home…if you demonstrate against us we will take you away…The Fear Appeal.
Zimbabweans have grown to fear anything which puts the government in bad light and that is the community in which the generation will be born in; a community of cowards who cannot stand up for themselves. A community which fears doing the right thing.
Speaking in Harare recently, former Minister of Finance Tendai Biti castigated Zimbabweans for failing to stand up for themselves but managing to make a field day over Mugabe’s recent fall at the airport.
“As politicians at least we can be seen to be doing something unlike the general populace of Zimbabwe which is content with making fun of Mugabe when he falls but cannot defend that which they must,” he said.
Chances of the next generation enjoying basic human rights such as the right to safe water and the right to shelter, which are currently being denied by the state is a long shot as long as the Zimbabwean populace remains a cowardly lot.
The people of Cowdray Park’s (Bulawayo) new stands have gone for five years without water while the Zimbabwean media was awash with evictions by the first lady recently. A clear denial of rights enshrined in Section 77 (a) of the Zimbabwean constitution by the government but little resistance has been seen despite the obvious need.
A genuine but painful fact about Zimbabweans is that they are ‘Educated Fools’ and that is one of the reasons why the next generation will not enjoy basic human rights. Zimbabweans have a tendency of voting on political lines instead of the capacity of an individual to lead or develop a sector assigned to him or her.
There are quite a number of politicians in the current government who simply do not deserve to be in government because they have failed to offer anything, some since independence. It is these same politicians who clandestinely deny the people of Zimbabwe their rights but continue to resurface in government as Educated Fools continue to give them the mandate to rule.
Born amongst Educated Fools and growing up with a similar culture, there is little to no hope of there being a difference between the next generation and the present one.
Section 51 provides for the right to human dignity while Section 53 protects citizens from inhuman or degrading treatment. Section 56 (2) provides for equal treatment of men and women including the right to equal opportunities in political, cultural and social spheres.
The above have over the past year been trampled on but with little resistance from rights pressure groups. Joice Mujuru’s expulsion from the vice president’s office which on its own was unconstitutional should have been the tonic for women rights groups to stand up for one of their own, thereby ensuring that the next generation will not be abused in the same way. But their silence (including mujuru’s) is authority enough for ZANU PF to continue undermining women and that is exactly what the next generation will have to contend with.
The third generation will never be able to stand up for itself when the time comes because as a people we have a culture of accepting failure.
In one of 263Chat’s WhatsApp groups, one member argued that the third generation only stands a chance of enjoy basic human rights after the fall of ZANU PF and unfortunately the death of Robert Mugabe who has been criticised for displaying dictatorial tendencies.
“I strongly believe that the third generation will only be able to realise and enjoy basic human rights after the death of Mugabe, war veterans and the fall of ZANU,” he said.
This is the extent to which Zimbabweans are suffering. They wish someone’s death. This point is better illustrated by Mugabe’s fall at the Harare international airport recently.
There is no hope and no other view to the human rights story in Zimbabwe. What are needed are a change of culture and the adoption of a new formula in dealing with this debacle before the next generations suffer the same way.
But again we do not seem to be willing to stand up to the system, of course except Itai Dzamara who went for months living in the Africa Unity Square as a protest to government failure before his ‘disappearance’.
*Leopold Munhende is a fourth year Media and Society Studies student at Midlands State University. He can be contacted at leopoldkm17@gmail.com*
