Growing up, the late nationalist, Herbert Chitepo used to be one of my my inspirational childhood heroes.

Chitepo was the first black person to be registered as a barrister in the entire Southern African region.

During the early days of our nationalist movement, he made a bold decision not to focus on a promising career as a practicing lawyer.

Instead, he opted for the less glamorous and more risky option of being the go-to lawyer for all the political victims of the racist colonial regime of that time.

And as fate would have it, Chitepo’s reputation as a selfless people’s advocate grew so rapidly, so much that in no time he was thrust on to the centre stage of leadership for the nascent nationalist movement.

In August 1963, he found himself as one of the founding leaders of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU)He was elected to be the national Chairperson for ZANU.

Unfortunately for him, his political career blossomed right at the same time with that of the late Ian Douglas Smith.

It was the very same Smith who led a new radical shift in racist politics under the new party known as the Rhodesian Front.

Sooner than later, in a determined attempt to consolidate his newly found political power and also the fight for the British to grant independence without the requisite condition of black majority rule; Smith decided to outlaw both ZANU and its rival the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) as led by the late Joshua Nkomo.

Added to that, Smith went on to arrest and detain unjustly several key leaders of the nationalist movement including Nkomo, Ndabaningi Sithole, Robert Mugabe, among others.

These were all banished to a remote specially designed political prison known as Gonakudzingwa, deep into wildlife territory at the Gonarezhou national park.

The scattering of the nationalist movement leaders put to an end to any hopes of Chitepo’s continuing to grow his reputation as a people’s advocate.

Chitepo was one of the nationalist leaders who was forced to go into exile.

He was soon to be found at the forefront in the process of establishing the exiled administrative structure of ZANU.

The late Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda welcomed ZANU to set up its new headquarters in Lusaka.

And so, far from what he could have imagined upon his qualification as a barrister, Chitepo now suddenly found himself not just in exile but also as the de facto leader of ZANU since all other senior leaders of ZANU had been detained indefinitely at Gonakudzingwa.

For several years, he had the onerous task of keeping the ZANU flame burning as the leader of the party in exile.

It was a task that he took on very well and he successfully executed it. I was born on 31st January 1975.

However, tragically, a few week after my birth, Chitepo met his own death.

He was assassinated on the 18th March 1975.

A bomb was planted beneath his vehicle that was parked outside his house of exile in Lusaka.

The bomb exploded massively as soon as Chitepo’s driver started to drive his vehicle.

This in effect also meant that Chitepo never had another chance to spend Christmas back home in his own beloved motherland.

The most recent Christmas of 1974 proved to be his very last one.

Unfortunately, he must have spent his last Christmas in Lusaka, so far away from his beloved ones back home in his beautiful motherland.

This also meant that what eventually became my first ever Christmas at the end of 1975, was actually the first Christmas for the Chitepo family without their most famous member.

And just like that, Chitepo failed to make it to my first ever Christmas in December 1975, due to his decision to put the national interest ahead of his personal one as a most promising lawyer.

His death also proved to be his ultimate sacrifice in his quest and dream for a new, free, independent and democratic Zimbabwe.

Indeed, he must have died with the hope that one day, his compatriots would no longer need to celebrate Christmas in exile, stranded as refugees in foreign countries.

He must have definitely died with the hope that one day his compatriots would happily celebrate Christmas back home in Zimbabwe, in the company of their most beloved ones.Fast forward now to Christmas in 2021.

Sadly for Chitepo, it seems his sacrificial death was all in vain.

Today, the number of his compatriots celebrating Christmas in foreign countries is now far more than that of his last Christmas in 1974.

Yes, independence eventually arrived a few years after his death in April 1980.

However, Chitepo would be very disappointed to know that the initial euphoria of independence soon evaporated. It was just a political mirage.

The great dream that he died for; the big dream of a free, independent, democratic and prosperous Great Zimbabwe has now dramatically turned into a political nightmare.

Many more families as compared to 1974, will now be forced to spend Christmas separated from each other during December 2021.

As l write, millions of Zimbabweans have been forced to celebrate yet another Christmas all across the world in such countries as South Africa, Botswana, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada, among others.

Indeed, Chitepo would be disappointed to learn that thousands of his compatriots will like him in 1974, be forced to spend Christmas at Lusaka and all across Zambia.

Worse still, Chitepo would be disappointed to learn that back home in Zimbabwe, there will be families that will be forced to spend Christmas without their beloved ones who are the new modern version of political prisoners like those who were forced to spend their Christmas at Gonakudzingwa in 1974, so far away from their beloved families.

The sad truth that Chitepo would need to face is that in the so-called independent Zimbabwe we now have our own version of political prisoners.

Indeed, there are several political prisoners who will be forced to spend this latest Christmas, separated and so far away from the company of their beloved family members.

Among these prisoners who are being detained unjustly on political grounds is none other than the youthful Makomborero Haruzivishe.

During the same month of March that Chitepo sacrificed his life for a new Zimbabwe, Haruzivishe was unjustly incarcarated by the military backed regime that has forced itself against the democratic wishes of the Zimbabwean masses.

Somehow, Haruzivishe is a modern day Chitepo.

A few years ago, he was privileged enough to be admitted at the University of Zimbabwe.

He could have simply focused on merely obtaining his academic degree and look for a professional career path.

However, during his time at the UZ, he soon realized that his personal ambitions were inferior to the waning national aspirations.

Haruzivishe realised that unless something was done, there were no guaranteed future prospects for him and his fellow students once their graduated from university.

Zimbabwe currently has one of the worst statistics across Africa when it comes to graduate unemployment.

Haruzivishe soon realised that his degree qualification could prove to be meaningless if he did not stand up for the future prospects of his beautiful motherland.

Just like Chitepo before him, Haruzivishe chose to put the future of his country first, ahead of his person one.

Haruzivishe soon became an outspoken student leader.

He was then elected as the Secretary General of the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU).

As a student leader he soon became a national voice for his own generation in its aspiration for a new Zimbabwe.

Unfortunately, the regime realised that his radicalism could soon inspire more people to heed the call to renew and intensify the struggle for democratic change in Zimbabwe.

As fate would have it, in its desperation to cling to political power at all costs, the military-backed regime decided to use Haruzivishe as a sacrificial lamb to warm others of the danger of being passionate about the need for democratic change in Zimbabwe.

Haruzivishe is a political prisoner.Just like all those millions of Zimbabweans who are now scattered in the Diaspora, Haruzivishe is not going to spend this Christmas with his beloved ones.

Haruzivishe will spend his Christmas behind bars. Unfairly and unjustly so.

Indeed for his beloved ones, it will sadly be a Christmas without Mako.

His story is sadly a microcosm of the rest of the families across the country who will be forced to celebrate Christmas without their beloved ones who are either unjustly detained in prison or have been forced to live in exile, in the Diaspora.

This is the sad but true story of Zimbabwe today. Be that as it may, we cannot afford to allow this tragic state of affairs to continue unabated.

It is now time for all of us as Zimbabweans, both at home and in the Diaspora to boldly proclaim that enough is enough!

We desperately need new political leadership for our country to have any hope of achieving its true potential and become the Great Zimbabwe that many hoped it would be on the 18th of April 1980.

It is now time for change.Indeed, it is now definitely time for democratic change in Zimbabwe.