How ZANU (PF) squandered the struggle dividend
The culmination of years of violence, abuse and crimes against innocent citizens must see the implosion or rupture of a liberation party that never knew how to govern.
Liberation struggle political parties that came into power in most of Africa after independence from colonial rule sustained themselves through the "we liberated you" mantra. The liberation struggle dividend has hugely been abused simply because once into power, our struggle elite created extractive political institutions to keep opposition parties out of political power while ensuring that Africa's resources benefited them at the expense of inclusive economic development. This has diminished their relevance over time because they have failed to deliver.
It is evident that in our case in Zimbabwe, the liberations struggle dividend was used to stifle the emergence of an apolitical national bourgeoisie and an empowered black middle class. In addition, we saw a racist approach to economics which resulted in the dispossession of white property and its replacement by a black liberation struggle propertied elite all in the name of the "ideals of the struggle".
Of course the question of who actually liberated is still to be answered despite seeing so called war veterans continually claiming that "they died for the country". Sadly, those who were truly dedicated cadres who fought for our freedom and sacrificed all were side-lined one by one, but that is not the subject of my article.
Over the years, we have seen deterioration in the integrity of liberation struggle values and their replacement by essentially predator capitalist tendencies that have decimated our economy. Elections have really been used to fake democracy and we now sit with a ZANU(PF) that is fast deteriorating into a leaderless beast hungry for power but with very little to offer.