MY VIEW ON DR SIBANDA’S BOOK

I take this opportunity to unequivocally declare that I am an apologetic advocate for fundamental rights and freedoms as enshrined in the United Nations Universal charter for Human Rights.

I am pleased that the Constitution of this beautiful kingdom as a supreme document confirms them in different sections and the bulk of them appear in Chapter Three thereof.

Among the many enshrined rights under the Bill of Rights chapter in the Constitution is the freedom of expression and I want to focus on it today which I also observe. I am a firm believer in democracy and democracy exists. I also believe that there are different models of democracies and different styles of managing democracy, but what makes democracy to be identified where it is properly practiced are the values which I will delve into later in the article.

One of the fundamental principles of the freedom of expression is the right of individuals to express themselves and their opinions. Opinions belong to individuals who utter them and all individuals have a right to do so. It is not up to the listeners of those opinions to say they should not be expressed, but listeners should either agree or agree to disagree with that opinion but cannot change it.

But the tendency of an expressed opinion is that it triggers other opinions on the same subject raised, just as it is in the case of the opinion raised by Dr. Cleopus Sibanda in his book ‘There Is No Democracy At All’ particularly in political parties.

 I totally disagree with this as it is painting political parties with the same brush. I totally differ in the thinking that there is one system of democracy. Democracy is good and assures good governance and party politics guarantees checks and balances, transparency and accountability to the governed.

It allows people to give the mandate to the party they believe has the best policies to address their needs socially, economically and politically. It also gives people power with their ballot to remove a government or people in government that abuse power of their office, just like Dr. Cleopus Sibanda’s political party has done to former President Robert Mugabe, who after a good political track record started to abuse power to the detriment of the Zimbabweans hence he was eventually removed from office.

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