PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa should embrace reform demands made by citizens and not rush to dismiss them at face value.
If Mnangagwa were to take a cursory look at opposition parties and civic society groups’ reform agenda for the past two decades, he would realise that there is nothing new among citizens’ demands for reforms.
Millions of Zimbabweans are yearning for reforms and would take to the streets of Harare and Bulawayo peacefully just as they did on November 18, 2017 demanding the late former President Robert Mugabe’s resignation.
Revulsion for Mugabe’s rule as shown by the unity of purpose among Zimbabweans in the former leader’s last days in office and the acceptance of military intervention, which in ordinary circumstances would have been rejected, should be read as a cry for freedom by citizens.
The temptation for Mnangagwa was to stick his head into the sand, turn belligerent like his predecessor Mugabe and try to tough it out.
That is not the route that Zimbabweans wanted to take when they supported the 2017 military coup. Mnangagwa has an obligation to respond positively by laying the foundation for a truly democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and inclusive society that those who sacrificed their lives for our liberation yearned for.
NDABANENGI
