Mutumwa Mawere

I have read the correspondence below with interest more particularly because the last 15 years of South African democracy are pregnant with valuable lessons on the challenges and opportunities of nation building.

What lessons do we draw from the South African experience? The authors of the Freedom Charter were acutely alive to the need to make South Africa a home for all who live in it.

The questions of identity and citizenship were central in framing the Freedom Charter.

The mere fact that the largest opposition party in post apartheid South Africa can be led by a white person goes a long way towards confirming the enduring validity of the principles underpinning the Freedom Charter.

Indeed, South Africa belongs to all the people who live in it. Even Zimbabwean-born persons can also be South African enjoying the full rights as any native born person.

However, it is ironic that persons of European and Indian heritage have invested more in being South African than foreign born black people. Although they live and work in South Africa, many of the foreign born black persons are more preoccupied with the politics of their native countries than focusing on impacting the world they live in.

After all, they pay taxes from income generated in South Africa and yet are less concerned about how their income that is allocated as taxes is spent than how, for instance, Mugabe behaves at home forgetting that if they became a force to be reckoned with in South Africa they can influence the foreign policy of their new home on Zimbabwe.

We know that if, for instance, Helen Zille was Zimbabwean she would not have had a chance to compete for political office let alone to insult the President of the ruling party.

The contestation for political power and the propensity of incumbents to use the state machinery to entrench themselves in power is not unique to South Africa but the difference is that the ANC managed to resolve its internal conflicts without the kind of ugliness that is characteristic of African politics. Credit must ultimately go to Zuma for exercising restraint and patience. Even those that decided to cope out rather than in the ANC will agree that the ANC is stronger today because of the experience.

As Zuma prepares to assume office, we can all look back at the maturity with which he has handled his struggle with fellow comrades. The victory of ANC under Zuma's leadership is a demonstration that the voices of the voiceless can triumph.

What is it about South African democracy that would allow President Mbeki to be challenged successfully by people alienated from state power?

Comparisons between Mbeki and Zuma have been made and clearly Mbeki's academic credentials are superior and yet Zuma managed to outmaneuver him.

However, without the courage and support of people like Vavi, Nzimande, Mbalula, Malema, and Friends of Jacob Zuma, Zuma's journey to statehouse could easily have taken the typical African route.

The broad membership of the ANC managed to see through the manipulation of the state for political expediency.

When I decided to emigrate to South Africa in 1995, my mind was preoccupied with Zimbabwean development issues but I later came to the realization that it was irresponsible for me to live and work in South Africa but choose not to associate myself with the country's challenges of nation building.

I decided to join the ANC after observing what had happened to Zuma notwithstanding his political and social status can also happen to me. After all, I have been a recipient of unjust treatment by the state but unlike Zuma, many of our experiences remain beyond the interest of the people who purport to have Zimbabwe's future at heart.

In Zuma's experience, I began to better appreciate how easy it is for people in power to forget the people from whom the power is derived. Many post-colonial African states including Nigeria and Ghana cannot claim the same democratic success of South Africa i.e. to have 15 years of uninterrupted democratic constitutional order characterized by a failure by an incumbent to perpetuate his reign in the name of national interest.

As the ANC celebrates a deserved victory, the loneliest man must be former President Mbeki whose name has increasingly become difficult to refer to at state or national occasions.

Like Zuma, the state was manipulated to exclude him from exercising his democratic right enshrined in the constitution to offer himself as candidate for the office of the President.

A man with no college degree has managed to lower the bar for the many who believe that to be a President one must be formally educated.

From the outset, Zuma was the unlikely candidate and numerous hurdles were placed before him but he was smart enough to transform the stones thrown at him into building blocks for a new foundation of South African democracy.

I now know the dangers of state power being concentrated in the hands of a few wise men. They can use the power to blind those they do not like. I decided to join the ANC as an ordinary member after the Polokwane conference because I felt that I must be the change that I want to see mores in South Africa than in Zimbabwe.

I have not been persuaded by the argument that has been advanced by many in the diaspora that it is less important to be the change that one wants to see in South Africa than be the change in Zimbabwe where I have no right to vote.

Equally, for non-resident Zimbabweans, it is more critical to take an institutional approach to the change agenda.

The more organized people born in Zimbabwe are, for example, in South Africa the more they can be useful to Zimbabwe. We are acutely aware that South African capital and values are going to be key drivers to the transformation of the continent including Zimbabwe.

In South Africa, it is common cause that notwithstanding the taxes contributed by foreign born blacks, the definition of a black person in terms of BEE and employment equity regrettably excludes them.

However, many of the beneficiaries of BEE initiatives are keen to take advantage of the opportunities that the continent offers using their black identity and yet are not prepared to broaden the definition of a black person to include foreign born blacks.

In order to challenge the absurdity created by BEE and employment equity, it is important that foreign born blacks pause and think about the kind of Africa they want to see.

When Mahatma Gandhi was exposed to injustice in South Africa he did not surrender but chose to be the change that he wanted to see and the rest is history.

The African identity is a contested concept and it can only have meaning when we decide to invest on identity questions. Zimbabwean born black persons who decide to preoccupy their minds exclusively on Zimbabwean issues may ultimately be responsible for exacerbating the xenophobia tendencies. Citizenship after all is a choice. Yesterday, I did vote like many people who call themselves natural and authentic South Africans. My choice does matter and failure to exercise it should be an indictment on me.

Can you imagine the amount of tax revenue that is collected by SARS from people who continue to call themselves Zimbabwean while being prepared to pay and not pick. I believe in the pick and pay concept i.e. if you pay you must have the right to pick.

Citizenship is not only a right but carries with it obligations. By refusing to identify with our new home we are effectively denying our children the right to be South African because as long as they carry our surnames they will never be considered as South African simply on account of the choices that we have made. It is common cause that children of Zimbabwean born black persons, for example, who grow up in South Africa may not have anything in common with Zimbabwe like their parents for it to be a worthwhile investment to continue to look at the rear view mirror with nostalgia on the good old days.

Europeans who decide to acquire South African citizenship, for instance, have found a political home in the white-led political parties and it is easy for European born white South Africans to refer to foreign born blacks as foreigners notwithstanding the contribution to nation building people like us may also make.

President Obama did not have to change his name to make him more marketable as a candidate for the office of the President.

Both Presidents Obama and Zuma have challenged all of us to think bigger and to reevaluate our own choices. As tax payers in South Africa, we are eminently positioned to influence South African foreign policy on Zimbabwe.

After 29 years of ZANU-PF political hegemony we must also accept responsibility for failing to use our leverage in our new homes to influence the foreign policy of South Africa on Zimbabwe.

Imagine, we had decided to be part of the change that we want to see in South Africa, we would have had 15 years of experience that we could bring to bear on the madness taking place in Zimbabwe.

Without our involvement, the South African government does not believe that the situation in Zimbabwe warrants the kind of intervention that most of us want to see. White South Africans know how to use their power to make the changes they want to see.

In 2003, I was one of the founders of Africa Heritage Society (www.africaheritage.com), a member-based organization precisely because I saw myself as an African first and Zimbabwean or South African second.

I believe that being South African is no more than an idea and anyone who subscribes to the social contract inherent in citizenship can be South African.

By choosing to be a citizen, I am aware that many people born in Zimbabwe have and probably will never understand the logic of my choice.

Although my identity will always remain Zimbabwean, my citizenship has changed. I believe that I have obligations to South Africa.

As an African, I see no impediment in acquiring any citizenship in Africa. By identifying with my adopted home, I have no doubt that my decision will also add value to the redefinition of what it means to be a South African.

I am satisfied that I have done my part and will continue to do so to keep the African flag high. Through my own experiences and choices, I do hope that some will be inspired to begin to think about their own choices.

As we look back at our own conduct in making South Africa the kind of country that we want to see, we must also accept responsibility of our collective failure to be the change that we want to see. It is for this reason that AHS is hosting the 15-Years of Democracy Celebration at the Cecil John Rhodes' Rand Club on Saturday, 25 April (Click Here to view the invitation.)

As South Africans celebrate their collective efforts to shape the kind of democracy that we see today, the people who call themselves Zimbabwean living in South Africa must also use the occasion to celebrate the things they have not done to make South Africa the kind of country that they want to see.

I do hope that we can seize the moment to reflect on the missed and squandered opportunities. The need to invest in a new approach to nation building cannot be overstated.

We know that when for example President Mugabe thinks of a Zimbabwean he does not include people who do not look like him.

References to son or daughter of the soil expose the shallowness of our minds on the question of citizenship.

If our generation fails to take advantage of the moment to change the approach to identity and citizenship then we have no one to blame when South Africans use the same language of hate to define who should and who should not be part of this great rainbow nation that many of us have voluntarily chosen to call home.