WHOSE INDEPENDENCE? – By Renee Brenda Langa

18th April 2024

I am baffled by the ZANU-PF-led hype about Zimbabwe’s Independence Day celebrations.

I do not understand why the majority of Zimbabweans could ever lay a claim to independence when it is so obvious that the so-called independence only benefits the few ZANU-PF political elite and cronies.

Due to election rigging, accompanied by murders, enforced disappearances, voter intimidation and persecution, ZANU-PF has made the principle of universal suffrage (one man, one vote) a joke. Elections in Zimbabwe are just a façade —a pretence that there is democracy in Zimbabwe when, in reality, the opposite is true.

In other words, there does not seem to be any way of changing government other than a popular uprising or waging another war of liberation. This is scary, but after 44 years of oppression, there will come a time when citizens are forced to take that route.

When we talk of gaining independence, we gained it from a white minority, and it was taken from us by a black minority whose levels of repression are even worse than that of their white predecessors.

The majority of us are not independent.

We are not free either.

We are under siege from a government led by our kindred.

We have no reason to celebrate the 18th of April as the day we gained our independence because we are yet to regain it from the small group of bloodthirsty ZANU-PF dictators in Harare.

Cry our beloved country.

About the author

Renee Brenda Langa is a human rights activist and a member of Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) Zimbabwe based in the United Kingdom. She can be contacted by email at reneelanga378@gmal.com