Journalist Hopewell Chin’ono has doubled down on his call for young Zimbabweans to leave the country for greener pastures if they can.
Chin’ono said he would not try to persuade young people to remain in the country and “fight” for their future saying if they get arrested, no one, not even the opposition will support them or their families.
He cited the case of journalist Itai Dzamara who was allegedly abducted by State security agents in 2015 and has never been seen since.
Posting on X, Chin’ono claimed that the current opposition leaders are by and large spineless and have no capacity to stand for ordinary people. He wrote:
My South African followers have asked me why I encourage young Zimbabweans to leave the country instead of staying to fight.
It is because we have a long history of fearless men and women who stood up against the ZANU PF regime and were either killed or jailed and their families got no financial support from the alternative.
There is no leadership structure that has been able to manage and assist the families of these comrades in the past 20 years.
A journalist called Itai Dzamara was killed in 2015 by the regime after his one-man protests angered it, no coherent plan was put in place by the alternative to assist his family, wife and kids.
The opposition and civil society have wealthy men and women, but they never so it fit to build a fund for the families of these slain comrades.
Only this year has a Zimbabwean woman moved by the plight of Dzamara’s wife and kids assisted Dzamara’s wife in getting a job in Britain.
Zimbabwe is a nation where people lie to each other for feel feel-good factor, they are big talkers but very thin on action.
In recent times 2 Zimbabwean opposition politicians Job Sikhala and Jacob Ngarivhime were jailed for protesting against State corruption, their families have struggled financially and have only been helped by ordinary citizens through Go-Fund campaigns and individual handouts.
It should never have been like that. When Robert Mugabe and Nelson Mandela were jailed, their parties took care of their families’ fundraising both locally and internationally.
This had a massive effect on recruiting more fighters to take on the colonial regimes in South Africa and Rhodesia because they knew that if they were jailed or killed, their families would get assistance in their absence.
It would be extremely irresponsible for a voice like mine to encourage young people to do things that might result in their families suffering knowing too well that the alternative has no competence and capacity to stand with them.
Put simply, Zimbabweans are not yet ready to fight for their freedom and to take on risks associated with such pursuits as looking after the families of those who will fall on the battlefield or those who are jailed.
To do so requires fearless leadership, at the moment Zimbabwe has no such leadership in the alternative.
ZANU PF will not be fought and defeated through social media and newspapers, it will need courageous leadership.
So young people must seek opportunities in countries that can sustain their growth in the meantime.
There is no revolution that takes place without leadership, so it is unfair for anyone to blame the young people who are leaving the country expecting them to fight.
How do they fight when the alternative leadership is telling them that it will only fight using constitutional means whose constitution is violated daily?
Life doesn’t stop because there is no plan locally, people grow old and families must be fed. That is why I am saying to young Zimbabweans, to seek a plan to leave that will help you sustain personal growth and assist you in bringing up your families.
A young person who was 20 years old in 2000 is 43 years old today, they have no job, they have no home, they have no future because they have already lived half their life.
How do I tell their son to stay and fight when they have their father as an example of how Zimbabwe is dysfunctional in every aspect including the alternative organising themselves?
I asked young people to register and vote, they voted and their votes were stolen. South Africa defended the election heist, what more can they do?
ANC, PAC and many opposition parties to apartheid thrived because they had leadership that was prepared to take huge risks.
Meanwhile, in Zimbabwe, the alternative is terrified of being arrested, so who will lead the young people?
Whilst we figure out how to answer that question, let us allow the young people to seek greener pastures because life doesn’t stop, they have families to feed, and they have a life to live.
More: Pindula News