On the equitable distribution of power: Democracy cannot exist when there is one political party that has the majority of power
It has been a while since I wrote about Zimbabwe and this has been out of choice. It seems that no matter what some of us have to say the situation continues to get worse on the political front with no end in sight. Recently I watched a video of Mugabe's interview in 1976 at the Lancaster House talks and he was being asked what kind of Zimbabwe he looked forward to.
In it he said that his vision was for a united country that focuses not on race, but on the equality and that he had no intention at all of creating the very system that he was fighting against. He also stated that he had no issue at all with other political parties contesting the elections as it is their right to do so.
What went wrong?
I think that we primarily failed to implement democracy in Zimbabwe from day one. Although blacks became free from colonialism they did not free themselves from the wrong idea that democracy can be alive where there is inequitable distribution of power.
The establishment of a de facto one party state in Zimbabwe did not happen when ZANU (PF) and ZAPU established a unity agreement but happened at the ballot box in 1980 when Zimbabweans through the naive euphoria of "independence" from the British voted for ZANU (PF) and gave them a majority stake in power. For me that was the beginning of the dictatorship.