A new season’s greetings,
In my welcome to you all in 2018 I sincerely praise the Almighty who saw us all through to this time.
As Masakhaneni Projects Trust (MPT) we start our work in 2018 with renewed energy and vigour. We feel privileged to participate in communities’ efforts towards local development and improved livelihoods on the one hand while on the other enhancing community-based strategies on conflict transformation and peace building. As we serve communities we work with we have come face to face with evidence of 37 years of destruction; betrayed dreams and callous disregard for the well-being of citizens. Some of our communities survive under appalling poverty and eking a living on less than a dollar a day.
The poor socio-economic conditions are characterised by early teenage pregnancies and marriages, high school dropouts, massive unemployment, food insecurity, prevalence of domestic violence, inadequate health facilities and related social ills. These debilitating conditions require astute leadership to address expeditiously. As MPT we acknowledge that whilst central government bears the ultimate responsibility of ensuring that the citizens’ well-being is catered for, we also strongly believe that communities themselves need power to hold duty bearers to account. Above all there is need for local leadership that inspires communities to organize themselves at various levels for their own development.
I genuinely believe that communities that are properly empowered organize themselves better and in turn experience less conflict. MPT’s role in all this is to facilitate processes that will lead to the change in this unfortunate status quo. Therefore, our intervention seeks to tip the scales of justice in favour of the poor and downtrodden. Yes we facilitate but we are also citizens of this country and in most times we identify with the communities we work with. We are not a neutrally detached entity but we have an interest in what goes on in our communities.
While the coming in of the new political dispensation after the November 15 2017 ‘soft coup’ perhaps ended the 37 destructive years of Mugabe’s power, actually 2018 offers real opportunities for people power. Zimbabwe’s road to political normalcy and economic recovery hinges on conducting free, fair and credible elections in 2018. It is too premature to say whether Justice Rita Makarau’s rushed exit from the helm of the electoral management body, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, spells progress or doom to the dream of credible elections with a legitimate outcome! There have been many changes since then and some too murky to comprehend. For example, Zimbabweans woke up to news of senior police commanders summarily retired only to be reversed. Policy inconsistency at its worst!
Without sounding alarmist, all peace loving citizens are concerned with statements allegedly from a commissar from one political party who it is claimed threatened villagers in Masvingo with a return to 2008 electoral violence. As MPT we note with serious concern this escalation in levels of political intolerance and threats of intimidation in the run up to elections. Our elections have often been characterized by violence and bloodshed which must stop if indeed the country has entered a new political dispensation.
We however remain optimistic that as a collective, Zimbabweans have power to restore normalcy in our country by ensuring that the 2018 elections are free, fair and credible and that the best men and women manage the affairs of the country for the next five years.
P.T. Nyathi