BY PETER MUTASA YOUR Excellency, President ED Mnangagwa. Mr President, l address you on behalf of workers of Zimbabwe who are suffering and disillusioned. I also address you in my own capacity as a citizen desiring a better life for my family. We engage you openly because in many ways your government has closed all avenues of proper and effective participation of labour and other civic society movements in governance. Your government has also designated the labour movement, especially the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), a terrorist organisation, thereby closing most avenues for genuine dialogue. We also address you openly because this is a matter of public interest. Many would like to tell you what we are telling you but are gripped with fear. When you came back from exile and took over leadership of this great country in November 2017, you promised that you would be approachable, a listening President, as soft as wool, and tolerant to divergent views. You promised us democracy, freedom, prosperity, respect of our dignity and fairness. You said you were ushering us into a new dispensation different from the late former President Robert Mugabe’s dispensation which you were also ironically part of. Your new dispensation was supposed to be based on constitutionalism, rule of law, national cohesion, democracy, and zero tolerance to corruption just to mention just a few of the many things you promised to do differently. It is important to point out that the workers and many citizens participated in the processes that led to your inauguration as the second Executive President of Zimbabwe in November 2017. Yes, l was there at Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfield, Harare, on November 18 2017 and spoke in support of a new Zimbabwe on behalf of the working class. Don’t be mistaken, Mr President, the majority of us were not oblivious of your political past. We were prepared to forgive and join you in rebuilding a new nation that is good to all. We also were not doing it for you or your colleagues in government. No, not at all, we had hope for a new future. A future of peace, freedom, democracy, rule of law, equality before the law, equity, justice, constitutionalism, prosperity and transitional justice. Unfortunately, despite this hope and goodwill extended to you by citizens and the international community, your government has done everything to destroy our hope. We have experienced scary authoritarianism never imagined post-Mugabe regime. This includes shooting of defenceless citizens in the streets, the unlawful arrests and pre-trial detentions of citizens, abductions, torture, intimidation and many other forms of abuses. There has also been a spike in corruption cases in many sectors of our economy that has no parallels since independence in terms of scale and impunity. In short Mr President, workers feel betrayed and the majority are not happy, never mind what those close to you say. Many workers are now living in conditions that are either parallel to or worse than the colonial conditions. Domestic workers are earning