The tragic thing about Zimbabwe's Independence in 1980 is that it did not come with basic freedoms as we had all assumed. Independence Day remains hollow and empty despite the blood shed for Independence.

There is still not respect for human dignity and human rights, which is why the MDC was formed as a post-liberation political movement to complete the unfinished business of the liberation struggle.
 
The positive thing about this year's Independence Day however is that Zimbabweans have overwhelmingly voted for a new Constitution which will go a long way in addressing the absence of basic freedoms and the deficit of good governance, thus setting new ground rules for our governance.

David Chawora (60), a 2012 victim of Zanu (PF) violence in Mudzi.

While President Robert Mugabe continued to publicly call for peaceful elections, monitors report that many parts of the country are tense, with attacks on MDC-T supporters and revival of militia camps used by Zanu (PF) to torture opposition supporters in 2008.

The so-called Police Internal Security Intelligence (PISI) has stepped up harassment of MDC-T supporters in Masvingo; chiefs are calling meetings on behalf of Zanu (PF); their headmen forcing MDC-T supporters to pay protection fees in rural areas; aspiring MDC-T candidates are being threatened, and a Zanu (PF) MP has been accused of calling out at rallies names of people suspected of having voted "No" in the referendum - leading to their being threatened.

Obama's Zimbabwe policy - fumbling in the dark?

Whatever it is that President Barack Obama is trying to achieve by sending former UN Ambassador Andrew Young to Zimbabwe, it is clear that it has already been hijacked by Zanu (PF) propagandists, and distorted.

This is the same fate that befell a British initiative when UK Under Secretary Mark Simmonds invited Zanu (PF) Legal Secretary Patrick Chinamasa to London for 're-engagement talks' last month.