During the past week, I was driving along Emmerson Mnangagwa (neé Enterprise Road) in Harare towards the central business district.
If you know Harare, you will know that it gets congested in the evenings, particularly on the lane that is headed from the CBD, while the other lane would barely have any traffic.
So, Harare drivers, being Harare drivers, tend to drive on the lane with no traffic, forcing the cars heading to the CBD to drive off the road to make way for them.
Quite selfish, illegal and very dangerous if you ask me.
So last week, near Highland Park, I met one such driver, who was facing oncoming vehicles and they all were giving way to him.
Probably out of frustration, I decided that this time I would not move and instead I would remain stuck to my lane as I was in the right.
The other car stopped in front of me, but I refused to yield and soon a mini spectacle developed.
Both the other driver and myself stood our ground, as if to see who would blink first. I told myself, I would not move until the other driver cleared the way for me.
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One woman shouted, “I like you” and drove off. I wonder what my wife, in the passenger seat, thought of this declaration, she did not say a word.
A few other drivers yelled at me, some insulted me and yet others drove off without as much of a word.
Eventually, some drivers opened the way for the offending driver and we were soon both on our merry way.
This little episode served as a microcosm of the Zimbabwean situation for me.
Daily, we see the elites running roughshod over our rights while those in authority bully us openly, yet all we do is to either quietly sigh and go on with our lives or at worst, turn the other cheek, while we get slapped.
Those that stand up against that bullying are seen as unwise and needless rabble rousers.
Instead, everyone should acquiesce and accept the excesses of those with more power than us as the norm.
During the coup in 2017, South African journalist Mondli Makhanya wrote: “This week, the people of Zimbabwe celebrated their hated leader’s overthrow in characteristically Zimbabwean fashion: they did nothing.
“They waited five days before taking to the streets to demand what the military had already achieved — the removal of [former president Robert] Mugabe. For the rest of the week, Zimbabweans simply went about their normal business of being placid and accepting of whatever the gods give them.”
This is who we have become, a people without agency. We accept what the gods give us, without questioning it in any way.
We are such a demobilised and apathetic people, waiting for a messiah.
It does not matter what it is, be it business, we accept shoddy service; politics, we fail to hold our leaders accountable; and even commuter omnibus operators abuse us willy-nilly and we just let it go without much resistance.
I am not saying what I did was revolutionary, but at some point, we have got to resist the bullies and demand what is ours.
Like the driver of the other vehicle, everyone on that road could see that he was wrong, but nobody dared oppose him, all the drivers accepted what the gods had given them and were all placid.
That is the condition we have accepted as Zimbabweans.
It’s as if we have accepted that this is our fate and we cannot do anything about it.
If we cannot oppose the small things — such as bad driving — then what hope is there to deal with the bigger things such as corruption and other vices that have become the hallmark of Zimbabwe.
At some point, we have got to realise that we are on our own and no one is coming to rescue us, meaning that we have got to demand our space and the respect that we deserve.
I am reminded of the aftermath of the 2023 elections, when a Sadc election observer mission pointed out that our polls had fallen short of what is expected of a democracy.
There were so many avenues to demand accountability, among them the courts, no matter how questionable their rulings have been of late, but at least something would have been done.
Instead, some opposition apparatchiks started saying the country should wait for a Sadc meeting as this would likely force Zimbabwe to hold elections again.
This was a very unlikely outcome, but some had hope.
Instead of dealing with our issues, we sub-contracted our problems to the regional bloc.
In the end, despite widespread voter suppression and a questionable voters’ register, as a country, we did nothing.
I know the courts route may not have been fruitful, but at least something would have been done, in the end, nothing was done to question an election that was anything, but transparent.
This is not just about the opposition then, the CCC, but anyone who felt aggrieved by the conduct of the election should have had the agency to demand accountability and transparency from those in power.
At some point, we have to resist and refuse to be treated as sub-par citizens in this country or maybe this is too much to ask.
The way we accept injustice and bullying, sometimes, it’s hard to believe that this is a country that gave us liberation fighters, who were courageous enough to fight injustice.
