THE beauty of democracy is that people are allowed to speak their minds, often without injuring the rights and reputations of others.  As you are aware, our own Rejoice Ngwenya has for years led a defensible attack on the leadership of President Robert Mugabe while resident in Zimbabwe.  Perhaps his brand of activism appeals even to Mugabe himself for its pure intellectual base.
Rejoice believes a lot has been written and said, and perhaps it is about time, some innovation was infused in political activism. Below is a five-point petition to Mugabe to resign: 
1. Almost 60 years in the struggle for liberation and 30 years at the helm of national governance is by all standards commendable. At 86, for a human being, there can only be incremental diminishing returns in value addition and high propensity for erroneous political judgment.
2. In the past 10 years alone, Zimbabwe has moved from being a net exporter to a net importer of food for reasons associated with unpredictable global weather patterns. However, a vindictive and vengeful land acquisition policy compounded by gross violation of property rights has been the major cause.
3. Between 1994 and 2008, Zimbabwe is on record as having violated all known forms of social, judicial, economic and political rights. The country’s constitution has been unashamedly desecrated resulting in not only the nation losing confidence in those in power but also three million citizens going into involuntary exile in search of true freedom.
4. Zimbabwe is endowed with diverse natural resources, but due to corruption and skewed political patronage in high offices, the nation now ranks as one of the poorest in Africa, is highly indebted and in a state of economic paralysis.
5. During his tenure, Mugabe’s Zimbabwe has dropped from having one of the most sophisticated infrastructure in the developing world to near Fourth World status. Causing a precipitous decline in commercial and industrial productivity and unemployment; and abject poverty.
How much more pain, anguish and suffering can innocent citizens take? Or is it a case of the fruits of our independence being a preserve of the ruling elite?

Franklin Cudjoe
University of Buckingham
UK.

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