CHANGE WE DESIRE: Democracy without transfer of wealth is meaningless.

Each time that I pose to check the content of our struggle, I am confronted by one question- what are we fighting for? Some say freedom: but how many times have I heard people shouting, what is freedom with hunger? How many people have I heard saying Smith was better than Mugabe? Some say democracy: but if democracy is the rule of the people by the people for the people why is it that so many things are being agreed upon and implemented without the people ever knowing? In short, we are frustrated with the lives that we live and we think that by transferring power from Mugabe to Tsvangirai our lives will be better.



When we talk of better, we are saying from this point, I will move to another point that is bigger. We expect a translational growth. So the question I ask again is: in 1998 my father had a total wealth amounting to US$20 000, today his wealth is around US$5 000, in the event that political change occurs, from which reference point will he measure the betterness of his life? If he was seeking political change in 1998 because he felt his government then was stifling growth, what will stop him from seeking political change if his wealth stagnates at US$18 000?



The point I am trying to put across here is that, what we are primarily fighting for is not political power but wealth. The reasons why we may seek political change are dynamic. In 1998, we wanted Mugabe out because he had failed to deliver on the "wealth aspect" of promises of the liberation struggle. Today we want him out because we are uncontrollably loosing wealth on an hourly basis.



Why is it then that when our wealth stagnates or when we get poorer we seek political change? It is because of Democracy! We expect that when we choose people to represent us, their choice of decisions should reflect the needs and aspirations of the people. Now, when we choose you because we aspire to be wealthier; and after a certain period of time we realise that we haven't grown; we are left with no option but to chuck you out of that office. What we do not ask ourselves is whether the failure of that person is because he made wrong decisions or because he could not make the right decision. We do not ask ourselves; if he couldn't make a decision is it because he is dull or because he is incapacitated to.



This takes me to the core of my thinking. If we elect somebody but in the course of his duties he stumbles on a challenge that needs radical use of power but discovers that his power is actually limited what happens? Do we go back and check as the electorate, the collective strength of our power. If so, do we also check the collective strength of our power relative to other powers that exist within our dominion?



Power is the basic energy needed to initiate and sustain an action or the capacity to translate intention into reality and sustain it. It is that which confers the ability to influence decisions, about who gets what resources, what goals are pursued, what philosophy is adopted, what actions are taken, who succeeds and who fails. If we can only change characters that govern us but our power is limited when we wish to change the distribution of economic wealth and the policies that govern such then we are not our own rulers. And therefore democracy as by its definition would be non-existent.



So, what do we need? We need the ability to choose whoever we wish to govern us, but more importantly we need the ability to confer that person with real power to implement our policies without restriction whatsoever.



What does this entail to the current Zimbabwe struggle? It means that as a people we have to first of all identify the reason why we are poor and why we are becoming poorer by the day. Secondly, we poster the solutions, thirdly, we choose our governors and mandate them to deal with the reasons in the way that we have postulated for them.



To me, wealth is the collective value of what one owns apart from his body and mind. The biggest impediment that we as Zimbabweans have had under Mugabe is that, there is nothing meaningful to own for a common man because everything meaningful is already owned by somebody! We could not venture into commercial agriculture because all the land was being owned by some few people. We could not tap into the produce of these commercial farmers because; either all grain had to be sold to Grain Marketing Board or the same farmers had prior network supply contracts. For example, Triangle Ltd would never, under any circumstances sell a bundle sugarcane to me so that I could resell at Mbare Musika because it was more interested in creating more wealth by making brown sugar, which they would not sell directly to me so that I could sell at a cheaper price but with a profit, rather they would supply N. Richards (Pvt) Ltd which is a wholesaler, that would not sell to me as an individual but would supply OK foods (Pvt)Ltd. So, the common man has been on the margins of the agricultural wealth-creation chain of Zimbabwe.



The same happened in any other sector that you might think of. When Rio Tinto (Pvt) Ltd mined gold at Renco Mine, I am not allowed to purchase that gold and resell it even if I have the resources to. Rather the Reserve Bank has the sole right to buy from them. Since mining is considered illegal for individuals in Zimbabwe, it meant then that as a common man I continued to be on the margins of the mining wealth in Zimbabwe.



So, real democracy should mean real power to the people. Indeed, we want land reform but not all of us want that land. Some of us want to take advantage of the produce from this land, thus we seek reform of the way agricultural-oriented business is done in Zimbabwe. We need mining reform, yes; but we also need a reform on the way mineral-oriented business is regulated and managed.



So in conclusion; our struggle is about control of the mode of production, it is about the distribution of wealth and the liberalisation of the mode of creating wealth. It is not about power but about real power. It is not about the right to vote but the strength of that vote!



Aluta Continua!!!