"Imagining Zimbabwe's future"
Come 2008, Zimbabwe will either be better or worse than it is today. One thing is sure - the situation is untenable now and will not remain the same. There is some fluidity politically, with the ruling party buzzing with talk of Mugabe's successor and some party stalwarts turning into apostates. The MDC remains at a stalemate over its strategy and its leadership. Zimbabweans remain passive and closed in on themselves. The presidential election in 2008 will be an opportunity to revitalize the opposition and energize the people to anticipate a change.

But the direction towards a democracy must come from the opposition. The regime will not initiate it. The international community will not act unless pressured to do so. And ordinary Zimbabweans are too afraid to do anything other than carry a dying hope that their country will someday see a brighter day. The opposition alone must take up the mantle and drive the force for change. If it rethinks its strategies, reforms its internal rifts, courts other opposition groups, uses the human capital in the diaspora, acts as a moral force and takes advantage of the 2008 election opportunity, there is every reason to believe that Zimbabwe will overcome its current crisis and one day wear the democratic label proudly and truthfully.

Dambudzo Muzenda is a senior in Morse College.