‘Support Stephen Sibanda of Occupy Africa Unity Square’

By Benjamin Semwayo

The decision by Stephen Sibanda to contest in the forthcoming by-election for Glen View South constituency must be lauded as it keeps alive the hope of finally supplanting the abhorrent Zanu PF regime.

It comes at a time when progressive Zimbabweans were beginning to fear that the cause, championed by Itai Dzamara, had died a natural death.

As the notorious regime led by Robert Mugabe is celebrating the false sense of being buoyed by its apparent silencing of Itai, another valiant cadre has emerged to take the baton from where his predecessor left, if the Zanu PF assassins have had their usual way with the brave activist.

Stephen has done it the way it ought to be done, and is leading the way for others to follow. We need more Itai Dzamaras.

Stephen knows full well the ruthlessness of fire-breathing gangsters such as Mugabe himself, Mnangagwa and Chombo, and he is fully aware of what he is getting himself into by crossing their path (the memory of Dzamara is still fresh in everyone’s mind), but that has not deterred him from continuing on the path that he embarked on with inspiration from Itai.

Every patriotic Zimbabwean will do well to lend Stephen their support as that will drive another nail into Zanu PF”s coffin. The man represents a proactive constituent of our country that seeks to arrest the rot brought by Zanu PF and set the country back on track to being the prosperous nation that it was before the Mugabe years.

It is important that he wins this by-election as that will show that it is not impossible to claw back from ZanuPF what it has stolen. It will show that the party is not as invincible as it makes out to be. It must be unmasked from the artificial invincibility mask that it masquerades in.

It is common knowledge that the party’s former “victories” were a result of manipulations of the electoral process, and these successive false victories are being used to intimidate the electorate into believing that ZanuPF can never be voted out.

The peace-loving Zimbabwean electorate has been repeatedly frustrated by being presented with results that are clearly not a true reflection of what they voted for, despite Zanu PF’s conspicuous tampering fingerprints being there for all to see.

The shameless party will stop at nothing to overturn the will of the people and has vowed that it will never allow the masses to emancipate themselves. That is the reason why Zimbabweans have to be resolute and take their destiny into their own hands. Dictators have never been known to relinquish power without sacrifices from the oppressed.

Stephen’s voice in parliament, though stifled, will show that the dream of the nation is still alive. Zanu PF will fight and threaten, but it will without a doubt eventually buckle under sustained attacks by Zimbabweans from all walks of life who really have Zimbabwe’s interests at heart.

Anyone who has a part to play to play in buttressing Stephen’s endeavours should be encouraged to do whatever they can to help him win. His win will be a victory for the force of good. Slobodan Milosevic, Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi were once powerful, fierce and apparently invincible dictators and no-one would have ever dreamt that they would one day be history.