THE plight and tragic victimisation of Zimbabweans across the Limpopo is a mirror whose reflections must awake the unity government about the statelessness most of our country people and their families have to confront each day.

There are millions of stateless Zimbabweans across the world and though they may not have to face the ugly reality of the shacks they dwell being torched by fellow Africans, it is little comfort that many are languishing in detention jails, or have no right of work or abode and are being exploited in scenes reminiscent of Rhodesia wherever they are.

This statelessness which is a result of the collapse of the national economy carries with it an account deposited with stories and testimonies of heartbreaking tragedies of destroyed hopes, lives and families.

This statelessness has meant that our skilled and trained citizens educated at the expense of the Zimbabwean taxpayer may now be picking tomatoes on some Irish farms in Europe. It cannot evade the writer that although the colonialists had a bottle-neck education system which taught Africans to be no better than cooks, it is the case that the policies of their successors have forced the same Africans out of their motherland in search of any work anywhere which in most cases is no better than cooking and serving food in the former colonial countries.

The restlessness of the South Africans is a restlessness which our leaders must put on their shoulders. We are not talking about hundreds of Zimbabweans going into a country to shop and trade. We are talking about a whole population descending on a neighbouring country with no date of return written anywhere on their consciences.

There are people fighting foreigners everywhere in the world and everywhere Zimbabweans are a significant proportion of that retribution. Zimbabweans are caught up in a limbo in which they are not being regularised into the host population and they are also not going to return to a place of no future.

The responsibility to correct this frightening reality rests with the people who constitute the government of the day. This government must not exhaust all its energy on preparing for the elections. Instead, the parties must be able to note that since the inception of the inclusive government, the economic environment has changed.

There is need for more work to be done on the economy and hence there is need to reschedule the politics of elections and replace that with politics of economics by at least another three to five years. In those five years, a lot will happen both in terms of the leadership and relations between the parties hopefully neutralising the mutual hatred and recreating a democracy based on principles and substance.

It has to be realised that this economic crisis is the priority which every Zimbabwean must put before party politics. The resuscitation of this economy must prevail over all other political business and can only be done within a peaceful environment uninterrupted by the chaos, counter-accusations and conflict ensuing from what will be a violent election.

Botswana President Ian Khama's call for fresh elections elections in Zimbabwe ignores the reality that these elections will not be free and will not be fair and will divert our country from this guided, gradual and peaceful transition from Stalinist dictatorship to autonomous democracy.

Any elections that seek to depose Mugabe as head of state in the next twenty four months will certainly recall onto our streets the madness and callousness of the Zanu PF regime. The battle for a free Zimbabwe has shifted from the streets to the table and there it will be won.

Our victory will not be the usual scene in which the loser is left with his head in his hands crouching in a corner licking at very deep wounds. Nor should it be that all those being succeeded are in endless persecution or languishing behind bars.

Truly, we have come to a stage when we need more presence on the negotiating table and more sense as well from the participating parties. This is also the time for harvesting from existing local regional alliances. This is also a time to harvest from Zanu PF's inability to stop the tide of change as well as its willingness to make concessions.

This is also a time for Zanu PF to harvest from the expectation by our people that it be a constructive and sober-minded part of reforming the political culture in Zimbabwe. Zanu PF must not continue to conspire and plot from the dark corners like a witch.

Tsvangirai's position as a Prime Minister today is stronger than his position as leader of the MDC in terms of the audience he can address and his audibility. Hence it should be insisted that today's language by the MDC must be conciliatory but unambiguos. It cannot continue to be about facing whichever direction Zanu PF is not facing.

The MDC must stay on the course of reform and dialogue. The major job is to ensure that each ministry in government is working. There is need for the government to come out strong and appeal for its recognition inside and outside Africa.

There is need to look East towards Asia and engage the emerging global economic power-houses to invest in our country on terms that promote skills development and employment.

Africa's relationship with the West failed because of the greed and 'dead meat approach' of the Caucasians. They have had a generational problem when it comes to seeing non-whites as equals. We stand to gain tremendously from relationships based on equality and not in which we are continuously ripped off as inferior partners.

China is the way to go. All African countries must en-mass seek a new relationship with the rest of the world trading from a point of equality. China presents Africa with a new bargaining power for its various precious resources on which the less privileged western world depends.

The inclusive government has a lot of work to do. We must support it. There is a bigger fight for the Africans to determine their own future and control their own resources, a fight which is constantly overshadowed by internal politics over state power, a fight which if won will improve Africa’s image as the poorest continent yet it has all the resources it needs to prosper. That is the real fight.

Zimbabwe’s political leaders must awake to the reality that doing the right thing in these circumstances is not that complicated. It never has been. It is a matter of will and that will can open a new chapter on how Africans harvest from their own freedom and will help to confront the real barriers to African success.

Courage Shumba is a human rights advocate