Dear Citizen,
As this new year dawns, we have the chance to change the direction of our country. We've now got the chance for a fresh start and new leadership in Zimbabwe untainted by corruption or lack of accomplishment of election promises. A new people driven leadership under Freedom Justice Coalition Zimbabwe Party is about shaking up the Zanu PF system of governance based on partisan lines, and ushering a new kind of system of government based on principles of accountability, transparency and inclusivity that gives everyone a sense of belonging and patriotism.
What people want is real change - not just in their politics, but in their lives. Today offers the chance for that change. Our primary goal this year is to transform our beautiful sounding words and promises into practical visible outcomes that have a positive impact on people’s lives.
Our aim is to temporally move away from our social media campaigns and discussions on WhatsApp forums to begin our face to face community conversations with members of the community so there is a two way exchange of views rather than the traditional grand standing rallies where politicians impose their ideologies and ideas in crowded stadiums. Its also important that we ensure we have a copy of the voters roll for each Constituency we intend representing in parliament and therefore encourage our members to register as voters for the upcoming elections.
We assure you that we are here to serve you and therefore believe it’s important for us to listen carefully to your story and challenges that you currently face, so we can look for the best solutions of addressing them once you vote us into power and give us the mandate to be government. Part of our conversation will also allow us to share our vision and mission objectives as a new political party, whilst giving you the opportunity to ask any questions about any aspect of our operations, structures, short and long terms objectives that you may need clarification on.
Freedom Justice Coalition Zimbabwe Party is not ‘a new party’ as in being recently formed as it was formed in August 2010 when we began our planning and research into Zimbabwe politics, but in terms of creating physical presence on the ground we are already two years behind because of the complex financial and resource availability challenges largely influenced by Zimbabwe’s very unstable socio-economic and political environment.
The minimal resources used thus far have come from donations from our volunteer administrators. It is therefore very important for us to get the little we can from members of the public who wish to see our political party become a success as we attempt to dump the traditional approach used in Zimbabwe opposition politics, that has relied mostly on external international donations and that of the ruling party that has been sustained from corrupt illicit deals received from partisan aligned companies who are given contracts and tenders in return for propping up the regimes hold on power.
We believe that our Community Investment Partnerships [Projects] should help us to usher a new self-sustaining model to move away from this retrogressive culture and hopefully create a new blue print that will help Zimbabwe and Africa gradually become less dependent on external donations for development of democracy. Our ability to work with minimal resources will act as a stepping stone to much tighter financial management regimes that are necessity if we want strict fiscal control. Strong financial controls will allow for reliable financial reporting throughout the party/government, which will allow for more solid financial management of the operation. Strong controls also provide greater peace of mind that the accounting data is correct and the money is better protected from potential frauds.
Our public engagement has revealed that most citizens know that our government and more established opposition parties are clueless and divided in terms of having a clear strategy of how to unite Zimbabweans and resuscitate the economy. Government continues in its desperate attempts to resuscitate the economy by selling our resources at a pittance to Chinese and Russians investors with not much attention put towards protecting the interests of local labour and companies. This is creating a debt burden that future governments and future generations may never recover from.
This is certainly not the independence that Zimbabweans expected. Our analysis may sound biased but it is not without praise as we are very grateful for the role the liberations parties played in fighting colonialism and equally the role opposition parties have played in their attempts to keep the Zanu PF government in check in terms of good governance. It’s time for new ideas, our own turn to play our part and take the struggle to a whole new level, a level where hard work is rewarded, a level where everyone has an opportunity to unleash their full potential, a level where we can finally see made in Zimbabwe brands topping the list of world quality products.
This we can all do as long as we believe, come together as a collective and can transform our ideas to visible outcomes. A lot has been said and written but very little transformed to practical outcomes, let’s be the examples that make us Proud Zimbabweans.
Yours in Servitude
Interim President
Freedom Justice Coalition Zimbabwe Party
