The People’s Coalition for Change Beyond Tribe, Race & Location

Dumi Senda

FJCZ Advisor & Ambassador

In light of the publication of our article on the 18^th of April in The Zimbabwe Daily Newspaper entitled “New Political Party formed in the UK” we felt it necessary that our Interim Party spokesperson should clarify to our current and potential supporters that have shown great interest in our vision and have rightly sought further clarification on the structure of the party and how it aims to achieve its monumental objectives of bringing together Zimbabweans to work towards a common vision.

The news headline “New Political Party formed in the UK” seems to be a bit misleading as some readers seem to think the party was formed in the UK and to contest in U.K Elections. We would like to emphasise to our supporters that Freedom Justice Coalition Zimbabwe (FJCZ) is a fully registered political party in Zimbabwe in compliance with Zimbabwean laws regulating political parties since 2012. Its founding team members are all Zimbabwean born and are currently resident in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Canada, Germany, U.K and the USA. We believe that every Zimbabwean regardless of their locality who has a passion to contribute to the development and success of our beloved nation should have an equal right to do so from where ever they are as it is their birth right and constitutional right to do so.

We believe Zimbabwe can only move forward when its citizens internal and external are organised and given the opportunity to direct their efforts towards common national objectives. We have done our research and learned from countries like Ghana how they have embraced their Diaspora populations towards helping to bring back skills and experience that are needed to create a progressive economic environment where innovation plays lead and diaspora remittances can help stimulate growth in the economy.

It is our belief that the future lies in “togetherness”, the time is right for Zimbabweans of all colours, tribes and location to unite behind a collective vision for positive change to get Zimbabwe working again. It is not our place as a party to impose on Zimbabweans what that change should be like, but rather to invite every Zimbabwean to contribute towards a collective vision for the common good. The change has to occur in our hearts and minds first then our communities will follow suit. We believe the time is right to challenge attitudes that regard fellow Zimbabweans as the “other”.

If one Zimbabwean goes to sleep without food, the nation should be very concerned.

Who is behind FJCZ? This is a question that has come up several times. It is not unusual for people to associate political parties with prominent individuals. Indeed it is this view that FJCZ rejects and rather favours an approach of political parties modelled around the robustness of institutions. We believe this will put accountability at the centre of Zimbabwean politics. We believe the involvement of ordinary citizens in political processes from grass-roots levels is critical. This is why FJCZ has opened up its structuring and development phases for public involvement and scrutiny. We believe this will ensure that the party is built by the people and for the people and not for the elite and political classes only.

Our structuring phases have been divided into 4 parts; the Planning Phase, the Administrative Development and Implementation Phase, the Political Out-Reach and Development phase and the final Congress and Campaign launching Phase. The Administrative phase has been intentionally given priority over the Political phase as this focuses on the party structures that will ensure transparency and consistency in the way the Political phase is implemented. The Political phase will focus on the nomination and election of Party Political Representatives by our members at grass-roots level in every region. It is our belief that leaders must be chosen from amongst the people and that they must be people who have gained years of experience of leadership through serving their local communities, a key departure from the approach of imposition of leadership on citizens.   

How do you get involved? We welcome Zimbabweans and friends of Zimbabwe to continue supporting our vision and to lend their expertise, energy and passion to help us build a party that can transform Zimbabwean politics and usher in an era of people power, transparency and accountability. Feel free to join our Facebook FJCZ Page, FJCZ twitter and web pages as well as to email our Volunteer Team on Information About FJCZ, Become a Member  for membership forms or Media for more inquiries.

Dumi Senda

FJCZ Interim Media Officer

On Behalf of

Freedom Justice Coalition Zimbabwe Party

The People’s Coalition for Change

Dumi Senda is the Interim Media Officer and co-founder of Freedom Justice Coalition Zimbabwe (FJCZ), a new political party formed by Zimbabweans at grassroots level which seeks to overhaul the self-serving culture in Zimbabwean politics thereby putting power in the hands of ordinary Zimbabweans. He is an award winning poet and author who has made a mark as a community leader in Zimbabwean circles as well as internationally. He has used his gifts of poetry and stories to share a message of hope and unity amongst Zimbabweans and has raised the Zimbabwean flag on world platforms including being a speaker at the Pan-African Conference at Oxford University sharing the stage with leaders including HM King Letsie III of Lesotho and Guy Scott Vice President of Zambia and twice at the United Nations in Geneva. But Dumi insists that the most important part of his work happens away from elevated stages and in classrooms and community halls where he has spent many years teaching children about the Zimbabwean culture.  

Some of the best years of my life were years spent living with my grandparents in rural Mberengwa, here I learnt the values of Hunhu/ Ubuntu and experienced first-hand the impact of ordinary people coming together to work for the betterment of their community. I did not know then that this experience would shape my outlook on life and lead me to a life of service and community organising.  

In Mberengwa it did not matter that you did not have the biggest kraal of cattle or the largest flock of chickens roaming your yard or that you were not related to the Ishe (King) or Mudhomeni (village watchman), what kept our villages and our families afloat despite the relentless droughts and the feeling that we were far away from the capital and in many ways forgotten by the government were systems embedded in our culture that brought us a sense of togetherness.

I remember with great fondness days spent at Nhimbe, a gathering of families from around the villages to assist families who may not have adequate manpower and or equipment with which to till, mulch or harvest their lands. Our leaders were servants of the people; they lived amongst the people and were chosen by the people. We did not fear walking past the home of our village watchman; in fact his homestead was the playground for the children of the village. This taught me something that has stayed with me todate, that the best leaders are not the most powerful but the most humble, accessible and devoted to putting power in the hands of the people.

I learnt that leading is not about being ahead of the pack always, it is also about being behind in order to lend a hand to those who may struggle to keep up with the pack.

These childhood lessons have informed my attitude towards the poor and led me to believe that looking after them is not charity work in its conventional sense, it is communal justice. It is this conviction that led me to seek a different vision to the “normal pursuits” of our politics that has tended to benefit the few at the expense of the many.

To deal with a problem sufficiently it is necessary to acknowledge its existence and to understand its nature.

I believe the problem Zimbabwe faces today is a political one. The nature of this problem lies in the limited understanding of politics , the misconception that politics is a concern only for political classes creates a culture of apathy and mob-politicking with citizens who do not engage with the issues and therefore cannot exercise informed consent through the ballot or in everyday discourse. It is this understanding that informed the alignment of FJCZ to a grassroots foundation and departure from the traditional approach of political parties that are formed by political classes in cohorts with corporations and big-purse sponsors in order to impose leaders on the people.   

We have insisted on a party that is not built around the charisma of the individual as this has been both a cause and result of the self-serving culture of politics in Zimbabwe. Parties are built around individuals, making the individual stronger and more important than the institution. This has resulted in the flouting of party and national constitutions when the interests of the individual have come into conflict with the interests of the party or country. That such practices can continue to occur with no consequence to the individual and the parties in question is in itself an indictment on the citizenry.

Accountability is not the responsibility of the politician who may violate it; it is the responsibility of the citizen who must ensure the politician may not violate it.

The formation of FJCZ has not happened over night, it has been in the pipeline for a little over three years now with a dedicated team of individuals in Zimbabwe and the Diaspora volunteering their time and expertise to incept a plausible alternative to political parties currently in our politics. The decision was taken to not reveal the party to the public during the previous elections as the concern has never been primarily about seeking political positions and opportunism but about inviting Zimbabweans to be part of the structuring of the party’s administrative organs. We believe this will encourage participatory politics and accountability hence. When the people have had their say and contributed to building a party they can have confidence in, it will be time to commit FJCZ to the public fully and to launch the People’s Coalition for Change.

This article serves a two-fold purpose, to share our vision with Zimbabweans and friends of Zimbabwe worldwide and to invite Zimbabweans home and abroad to take ownership of their country by acknowledging that the problem we face is a political one and the solution cannot be complete without the participation of citizens who must play their part to ensure accountability. Change is not easy to implement and often the most difficult part is changing attitudes. We have to believe that it is possible for Zimbabweans to come together in the same way that people in impoverished rural parts of the country have done for years and built unassuming yet effective systems that ensured that nobody is left behind. The time to build a politics that works for all Zimbabweans, Shona or Ndebele, black or white is now and the responsibility is not charity, it is communal justice.

Zimbabwe needs Transformational Leadership

"Leadership roles in Zimbabwe/Africa must be looked at in terms of transformation as a key aspect of leading. Transformation involves changing people and organisations in a literal sense – changing them in mind and heart, to enlarge the vision, insight, and understanding, clarifying purposes, to make behaviour congruent with beliefs, principles, or values and to bring about changes that are permanent, self perpetuating and momentum building.

Viewing public office as an opportunity to enhance self-interests has taken cultural proportions for many amongst our business people, civic leaders, trade unionists and politicians. The political culture that has been defined in Zimbabwe for the past 30 years is showing its ugly face in many organisations in both the political and civic spheres. Public office is routinely abused for personal gains and many in leadership positions have become too engrossed in protecting the interests of their regimes and dominant constituencies than in serving the interests of the majority outside of these groups. A discussion on transformative leadership and transformative politics is, thus, very timely at this crucial moment in our history.

We should look for a different kind of politics and governance that serve the disenfranchised. The question of democracy has to be extended to focus on the struggles for clean water, electricity, health care, environmental justice and democratic gender relations. A new leadership should look further and envision the struggle for democracy to broaden beyond the necessary and urgent issue of democratic representation, and the guarantee of social and economic rights. 

Our concept of reconstruction should be a wholesome process that encapsulates the struggles of women for democratic gender relations, the new concepts of bio-democracy and and a new appreciation of the significance of hunhu/ubuntu. Our conceptions of liberation must move beyond apartheid and indeed beyond Zanu Pf/MDC politicking with the realisation that exploitation can wear a white face as well as a black one."

Courtesy of Esau Mavindidze 
Senior Project Lead
Zimbabwe Diaspora Network North America

http://www.zimbabwebusinessnet.com/

NOTICE: The contributing Authours of this blog are not necessarily members of Freedom Justice Coalition Zimbabwe but independent writters who have either been approached by FJCZ or offered to share their perspectives on Zimbabwe, it's people, it's economy and it's future which FJCZ sees as valid contribution to helping us find answers to many of our recurring challenges.