Conversing in diversity for the love of Zimbabwe
NATIONS are founded on consensus building. As such, the modern nation represents plural ideas which are amalgamated to form common aspirations and self-determination.
Consensus is born out of eliminating the residual burden of the divisive in framing national interest. Since time immemorial, in any polity, consensus is a by-product of dialogue.
Those who refuse dialogue consciously refuse consensusbuilding. Likewise, those who refuse consensus-building surreptitiously disparage an unequivocal virtue of nation-building. Consequently, those who undermine nation-building are a threat to the foremost values which should be uniting us in our competing dictums of democratic difference. Our constitutionally rooted rights to difference are micro and insignificant than the urge for posterity which should be the defining mark of the commonness we derive from our political diversity. Therefore, continued efforts in the perpetuation of progressive dialogue are essential as they decisively define and frame the lasting connections of Zimbabwe’s needed unity and development.
A historical dimension to national
dialogue(s)
Avid students of history would recall the renowned Indaba at Matopos. The significance of that historic anticolonial resistance conversation illustrates that the fight against the empire was not only ammunition based. It was also a fight of ideas. These are the same ideas which propelled the virtues of the Second-Chimurenga.
The consequent fall of the Rhodesian regime did not only mark the triumph of the barrel. It also marked the triumph of the agenda set in the Dare reChimurenga, in the revolutionary ideas of the Pungwes, not to mention the resolute stand-points that were taken from the confines of Gonakudzingwa Prison, Hwahwa and other dungeons which housed Zimbabwe’s liberation prisoners. There was also a wave of pan-African dialogue which permeated from all corners of the Global-South and infiltrated the Freedom Camps. Therefore, there is nothing amiss or anything new about having a structured national dialogue.
These awash insights from the past reflect the prominence of political dialogue and its significance in brokering ground-breaking opportunities for the invention and the continuous rethinking of our nationhood. It is through this historical entrenched merit of dialogue(s) that our common values are espoused. As we anticipate unity and nationbuilding, dialogue remains a critical pillar for tracing the roots of our homogeneity in the plurality of our conflicting ideological routes. The sanctity of dialogue in our politics predates the ethos of the new dispensation’s re-engagement t r a j e c tor y. There fore, dialogue is a permanent condition for Zimbabwe’s posterity wh ich emanates from an elaborate past. Resourcing difference for
homogeneity
Dialogue offers perennial and strategic benchmarks for uniting a people from conflict. To this end, in 1979, the dialogue of moving the nation forward centred on setting the terms and the standards for the independence transition. In 1987, Zimbabwe recuperated from the fracture of post-independence violence through the Unity-Accord initiated by nationalist doyens of the FirstRepublic, Cde Robert Mugabe and Father Zimbabwe, Dr Joshua Nkomo.
Taking a leaf from this experience substantiates how dialogue is a critical condition for establishing defined lines of lasting political interests. It was the long shared and permanent interests which united Zanu and Zapu to recovering the idea of a Patriotic Front in 1987. By 1989 the two political parties held a joint congress ahead of the country’s first Presidential election of 1990. This was after the expiry of some transitional terms the Lancaster Constitution. This saw executive powers being exerted on the new Office of the President. The coming to effect of the Unity-Accord in 1987 and the said 1989 Congress reignited the pre-independence nationalist consciousness which cleansed Zimbabwe from ethnic essentialist politics. Without doubt, this unity served as a milestone indicator of Zanu-PF’s 1990 election triumph. This is because Zanu-PF epitomised a new sense of national unity which was born out of set terms of a broad-based national dialogue.
In 2008, a local and regionally embedded dialogue gave birth to the Government of National Unity (GNU). Besides the political actors, the key principal interlocutor of the national dialogue was the Organ for National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration (ONHRI). During this phase of collective and crosspartisan national recovery, wide public consultations by signatory parties of the GNU produced the famous 2013 Copac Constitution. Far-reaching points of engagement were made and a rebirth of constitutionalism was realised. With a united perspective to local solutions for local problems the Lancaster Constitution was put to rest. That was a noble outcome of dialogue. The Pre-2018 Election Dialogue(s) However, today’s thrust in national dialogue(s) is founded on values of a reformed polity of the SecondRepublic and the new-dispensation re-engagement mantra. Part of the election credibility roadmap was framed through numerous exchange platforms which President Emmerson Mnangagwa had with various opposition leaders. On the other hand, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission held several election stakeholder meetings. Various issues around electoral reforms were tabled for discussion. Later on political parties took part in the signing of the Peace Pledge at the warm pleasure of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC). It is these pre-election dialogue series which made the 2018 harmonised elections to be generally peaceful until violence brokeo u t on 1 August, 2018. It is my considered view that Zimbabwe’s political actors need to be in constant conversation beyond the election life-cycle.
Why the Post-Election Dialogue(s)
matter?
The post-election dialogue serves as a progressive evaluation of the processes which informed the course of the 2018 elections. If political leaders across the political divide met to map the preelection democratic landscape, it’s only logical for this tradition and habit to be sustained through high and constant levels of engagement. Political parties’ open interaction must form the basis of the day to day cross-pollination of ideas beyond partisan differences. Now that elections have come and gone, all political parties’ campaign agendas must be diffused into the broader national agenda which is informed by the winning party’s manifesto and enduring values of this country.
Any dismissal of this long-term political tolerance building initiative would be largely misguided and senselessly partisan and narcissist. The call for dialogue by President Emmerson Mnangagwa vividly and lucidly instructs the rationale to decapitate split patriotic consciousness. In our differences we must locate broader socio-economic building aspirations of our country. If our conflicting points of political interest do not recognise the essence of nationhood then we are doomed to fail.
The call for national dialogue epitomises a deliberate and much needed commitment to promoting political tolerance in the pursuit of a practical departure from toxic politics. As we shift from the old to the new, the patronage misdemeanours of the FirstRepublic must be buried in the past. The mistakes of the past should mirror the direction for a long lasting culture to being united people.
Dialogue: Delivering the
Zimbabwe
At this juncture, all voices of dissent represented by the opposition must be given mutual approbation. No voice must be left out and no voice must usurp a prejudice inclined monopoly in such an important opportunity for Zimbabwe to be in conversation. This should build a long lasting premise for a migration from narrow structural bases of power to the broader apex of democracy. Today’s decisive national dialogue must be located within the prism of the values of an open society born out of the transitional culture of the new Zimbabwe.
It would be simplistic to reduce the call for Zimbabwe to be in a selfregeneration conversation to a power crisis management ploy by Zanu-PF. It is even beyond reasonable doubt that when the Operation Restore Legacy was effected a national conversation of transition was being implemented and symbolically gestured through the civil-military interactions from 15 November up to 18 November. The prominent articulation of the success of this national dialogue was noted in the manner the people of Zimbabwe defeated the binaries of colour, ethnicity and gender. The people of Zimbabwe united beyond their political differences to inaugurate a new dawn for Zimbabwe.
Therefore, today when the political leaders convene today at Munhumutupa their common goal must be that of representing the common values and interests which will reaffirm the need for economic stabilisation, peace and unity. The Post-Election dialogue postures a constructive narrative and national psyche for lasting and collective defence of the values of constitutionalism, democracy and good governance.
Pamberi neZimbabwe EMPLOYERS must consider paying their employees in foreign currency to cushion them from the increasing economic hardships.
As workers we know that employers are making huge profits every month but to our big surprise they fold their hands and watch while their workers are struggling to make ends meet. We are expecting the reserve bank governor to instruct companies to pay their workers in foreign currency because there is no way we can access this forex from the banks since we will be scrambling for it or competing with companies for the scarce currency. Most businesses are demanding payment in US dollars but shockingly pay their staff members in bond notes. We all know that even at homes where people stay most landlords are now rejecting bond notes or any form of payment which is not foreign currency. Eddious Masundire Shumba, Bulawayo.