Zimbabwe is not at peace. Our people are tired. We have been under the rule of ZANU PF for 45 years and nothing has changed. Things are getting worse every day. Prices go up while salaries stay the same. Hospitals have no medicine. Schools are falling apart. Ordinary people are suffering. But instead of fixing the real problems the government is busy arresting those who try to help.
Last night veteran journalist and Masvingo Mirror newspaper publisher Matthew Takaona was arrested. His crime was not corruption or violence. It was not stealing from the poor or abusing power. No. His crime was cutting grass. That is the kind of country we now live in. A place where helping your community is seen as a threat to the government.
Matthew was not alone. He was working with others trying to make a road safer for children near Mushayavanhu Primary School in Gutu. The road had overgrown grass and was dangerous. People had complained before but nothing had been done. So Matthew and some local citizens took action. They cleared the grass so that cars and schoolchildren could see better. It was a good thing. A community initiative. A sign of responsible citizenship.
But that simple act upset the local ZANU PF councillor Benson Dandira. Not because it was wrong. But because it made him look bad. Because he had done nothing about it and now the people had solved the problem without him. Because it showed that citizens can act without waiting for the ruling party. So what did he do He called the police.
But not just any police. He called the Ferret team. A feared unit made up of police and intelligence officers. The same people who should be chasing criminals drug dealers and corrupt officials were sent to arrest a man with a grass cutter. This is how low we have sunk as a nation.
Matthew Takaona was taken like a criminal. He was treated like a danger to national security. But when the police tried to find a crime to charge him with they could not. Because there was no crime. Cutting grass is not a crime. Helping your community is not a crime. So they were forced to let him go. But the damage had already been done.
This is the Zimbabwe we live in now. A place where cutting grass is seen as rebellion. A place where peaceful people are treated like enemies. A place where ZANU PF is afraid of its own citizens. And this is exactly why I continue to write. Why I continue to speak. Because silence is not an option anymore.
How can we grow a country where even cleaning a road requires political permission How can we move forward when good deeds are punished How long must we be afraid of the very people who are supposed to serve us ZANU PF has turned the government into a machine that attacks its own people. If you are not with them they see you as an enemy even when all you are doing is helping.
I write these articles not only to inform but to remind every Zimbabwean that we are many. We are not alone. We are tired. We want change. And that change will not come from silence. It will come from action. From courage. From choosing to do what is right even when it is dangerous.
What happened to Matthew Takaona is not just an attack on him. It is an attack on all of us. But we will not be stopped. We will resist. We will build the Zimbabwe we want. We will clear the paths ourselves if we must. ZANU PF can arrest us. But they cannot stop the truth. The grass will grow again. And so will our freedom.
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