Zanu-PF leans on neutral chiefs
Chief Nhlanhlayemangwe Ndiweni of Ntabazinduna in Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland South province says being apolitical has led to ruling party Zanu-PF heavyweights persecuting him.
The chief, who lived in Britain for four decades, returned to succeed his father, Chief Khayisa Ndiweni, a revered figure who died in 2010, aged 97. Ndiweni was a strong critic of former president Robert Mugabe.
When the younger chief took over from his father, he was viewed with suspicion by Mugabe’s regime, especially given his background in Britain, which Mugabe blamed for many of Zimbabwe’s ills.
But Ndiweni’s problems did not end with Mugabe’s fall in November last year, even though he tries his best to stay out of politics.
In an interview, the chief said senior people in the ruling party want to politicise his position and his refusal to support President Emmerson Mnangagwa is viewed as an endorsement of the opposition.
Minister of Home Affairs and Mugabe’s ouster heralded the beginning of a new Zimbabwe. It is only now, however, that we will begin to see what that really looks like.
Are there free and fair elections in the new Zimbabwe? Is there political violence? Can Zanu-PF accept Culture Obert Mpofu has called him a “political and traditional tyrant” and others have supported a bid by one of Ndiweni’s siblings to challenge his authority. Ndiweni is also fighting court charges relating to arson and violence, which he claims have been trumped up.
In Zimbabwe, the choices have always been very clear to traditional leaders: they either must push the ruling Zanu-PF’s agenda and benefit from the entrenched patronage system or refuse to co-operate and be victimised.
Traditional leaders exert influence over a crucial constituency, which Zanu-PF — and for the colonial administrations that preceded the party — has exploited. “Traditional leaders remain the most accessible defeat, if it comes to that? Can the opposition? Where do the security forces fit in? Will the international community intervene meaningfully?
Do voters want to live in Mnangagwa’s technocracy or have they been seduced by Chamisa’s and immediate form of local governance in rural areas,” academic Tinashe Chigwata wrote in the Law, Development & Democracy journal.
The pressure to tow the ruling party line always mounts before elections and this year is no different. The president of the Zimbabwe Council of Chiefs, Fortune Charumbira, was especially blunt: he told the council’s 2017 annual conference that traditional leaders have always supported and must continue to support Zanu-PF and its presidential candidate in the 2018 elections.
For this the Election Resource Centre dragged him court, where a judge ruled that traditional leaders should not participate in partisan politics as it was in contravention of the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
Section 281 states: “Traditional leaders must not (a) be members of any political party or in any way participate in partisan politics; (b) act in a partisan manner; (c) further the interests of any political party or cause; or (d) violate the fundamental rights and freedoms of any person.”
But chiefs don’t always consider themselves bound by the modern fantasy? Has the country really changed, or are we all just putting lipstick on a crocodile?
Pay attention, because what happens over the next few weeks will answer these questions and define the nature of the Zimbabwean state for a generation to come. Constitution. “The problem is that traditional chiefs do not perceive their role as derived from the Constitution,” said Gideon Chitanga, a researcher at the think tank Political Economy Southern Africa. “They see it as part of historical traditional authority governed by rules embedded in community practices of authority. Unfortunately, these practices were politically corrupted by the colonial regime on one end and Zanu-PF on the other.”
Political analyst Ricky Mukonza said support for Zanu-PF comes with material rewards for traditional leaders, often in the form of new vehicles and free agricultural products.
These rewards can feed in to local patronage systems, further increasing the influence of compliant chiefs and, ultimately, support for the ruling party.
In January this year, Zanu-PF bought 52 new double-cab bakkies to distribute to traditional leaders, over the protests of opposition groups who claimed the cars were nothing more than bribes.
Ndiweni did not get one.
“The problem is that traditional chiefs do not perceive their role as derived from the Constitution”