demonstrators any differently from the cruel manner in which our former colonial masters treated protest? Have we found an appropriate way to channel youthful dissent and impatience for fundamental change in a society still plagued with poverty and inequality? Do we have a national vision for safety and security for all citizens? Or do we simply continue to implement policies and procedures we inherited but have never seriously questioned and transformed? These are profound questions in my view and the fact that we still ask them today is a reflection of our collective failure to complete the fundamental transformation of the independent Zimbabwe state which the pioneers of our movement and the lost generation of liberation fighters believed they were fighting and dying to achieve. Most worrying is the fact that we are still unable to ask these questions and engage in a national discourse on the challenges we face and the way forward, including honestly admitting the failures and mistakes of the past, without apportioning blame and denouncing alternative views and perspectives as unpatriotic and unacceptable. Developing a national vision, and building the capacity to engage each other in an honest national dialogue in order to find a national consensus on the means to achieve that vision, are essential steps to nation-building in every respect, and most directly in terms of the basic right of every Zimbabwean citizen to live and prosper in a safe and secure environment. The challenges we need to address Colonial occupation and rule left behind a legacy in the security sector, which we have never adequately addressed. The key elements of this legacy can be summarized as: • A coercive security sector imposing narrow state-focused security; • Absence of meaningful democratic governance and oversight; • A culture of secrecy, impunity and human rights violations; • Centralised security institutions unresponsive to local needs or control; • Security policies protecting elite political and economic interests. The liberation struggle left its own legacy, which includes both positive and negative components. The positive components of our inheritance from the liberation struggle, including selfless sacrifice and service, self-critical reflection and internal constructive dialogue and criticism, discipline and an ethical code of conduct and above all else loyalty to the interests of the people, appear to have been long forgotten. The iconic African revolutionary leader, Amilcar Cabral, once exorted us to “tell no lies and 16