Malipati: When elections override development
IN her TED Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story”, renowned Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said, “the single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.” She would add, “The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasises how we are different rather than how we are similar.” Zimbabwe has over the past year or so, perhaps longer, centred itself around one single story, that of the 2018 harmonised elections.
For the most part this story has dominated news coverage both in State and private media. It has manifested itself in different ways be it succession, factionalism or coalitions, but everything seems to revolve around the elections next year.
Even in beerhalls and WhatsApp groups, after discussions on whether it was a penalty or not, or if Lameck is the real mwana waStembeni, the conversation reverts to something on the impending elections; when is voter registration? Who should we vote for? Is so and so going to run?
Some have even resigned to making critical life decisions for their career, family and/or business based on the outcome of the 2018 elections. “We’ll see what happens after elections,” they can be heard saying.
But the elections are not the only thing happening in and around Zimbabwe. In fact, one is tempted to say that this single story is disguised as a national one but is mainly the immediate concern of a few residing in Harare, the epicentre of political activity in the country.
Understandable one supposes, as the capital city is where the seat of power resides, where the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is housed and where the activist garners the most coverage and sympathies.
Elsewhere though, life goes on differently and while the politics of the day plays an important role in how this life is conducted, the concerns of the people may differ from which faction currently has the upper hand in a succession battle.
Venturing out of Harare is important, particularly for one to gain an appreciation of the conditions other Zimbabweans live in and hear other stories that add to the dominating one.
By engaging other communities, one can fully appreciate the diversity of Zimbabwe. The situations that different people in the country face might be similar but one fast learns that the one size fits all prescriptions issued out by political actors don’t apply across the board.
I recently travelled to Malipati. Each time I leave the capital I am quickly reminded that Harare is not Zimbabwe.
Malipati is a small village on the southern edge of Gonarezhou National Park in Chiredzi District.
The community there lives a few kilometres from both the South African and Mozambican borders.
To get there, one has to travel 586,7km; a journey which should take roughly eight hours depending on the speed in which you are travelling.
Unfortunately, for me and the party I was travelling with, the journey took extra three to four hours, not due to protracted stops — of which there was only one — but because for the last +100km, the road was simply terrible.
From Rutenga, through to Malipati via Chikombedzi the road ceases to be tarred and is just gravel. In some parts it was recently graded so the travel was smoother, but for the bigger part of the ride we were unable to travel faster than 30km/h on the bumpy one lane road.
What amused me and my travel companions was that even on this dust road in what many would consider the middle of nowhere, Zimbabwe’s ever so reliant and diligent police officers had set up a roadblock. But let me not digress. Off the bat it was clear how inaccessible Malipati is. One supposes other parts of Zimbabwe face a similar struggle.
Residents in the area were quick to state how difficult the roads were to travel on, particularly during the rainy season. In fact, a few of the bridges had been damaged or washed away completely and so some of the routes could not be used entirely. This is a thorny issue for the people of this area. It is part of the wider developmental conversation in Zimbabwe but one which rarely gets coverage.
Another lesson learnt in Malipati was that none of the local radio stations in Zimbabwe reach the area. The residents of this South Eastern village only have access to Studio 7 and South African radio stations.
In addition to this until a few years ago the only cellular network operators they had access to were South Africa’s Cell C and MTN. It therefore, didn’t shock me much when I was told that some people, who live there think that Jacob Zuma is their president.
Initially I laughed, but upon reflection this is a serious issue to which the relevant authorities should be brought to task.
It shouldn’t be the case that communities in Zimbabwe are cut off from communicating with the rest of the country and receiving information about the country. One even wonders what potential security risk such a situation poses.
This revelation highlights the importance of the digitalisation exercise currently underway though long overdue.
I would learn from the local community that Chikombedzi is a site for one of the digitisation stations, however the project seems not to be moving fast enough and this needs to be addressed.
One last take away from the Malipati experience was how different the issues that concerned the people were and how some issues are disguised as national but do not particularly resonate with the wider Zimbabwean community.
When I asked one individual whether he had heard about the #ThisFlag or #Tajamuka movements he admitted he had, via Studio 7 but dismissed them as a Harare thing. What concerned him the most was human/wildlife conflict.
Living on the edge of Gonarezhou National Park, this Malipati farmer had seen his crops raided by elephants and had lost cows to lions and jackals. There was no compensation for his losses because there is no law or policy that allows for him to be compensated.
He was most worried about how he was going to recover his losses and how he could guarantee that such a situation does not take place again.
In an ideal scenario this is where his Member of Parliament should step in and champion the desire for legislative reform with regards to this specific issue.
Unfortunately, if the image of the Hansard circulating on social media is anything to go by, frivolous jibes about circumcision dominate the August House debate. The lesson in this single Malipati experience is that more needs to be done to understand the needs of Zimbabweans in the communities they actually live in.
It is also that the political narrative needs to move away from being election centred to being developmental focused.
The ruling party has a mandate to deliver to all the people of Zimbabwe. If they invested half as much energy towards uplifting marginalised communities as they did on in-fighting, then perhaps those few residents of Mailipati would know Jacob Zuma was not their president.
In addition to that the media should also advance the developmental narrative. The single story of elections, and its many acts should play second fiddle to what progress or regress the country is making.
The voice of all Zimbabweans should be given a platform and those who represent the various communities should be challenged to give better accounts of what is transpiring in those areas.
Christopher Farai Charamba Correspondent
Until a few years ago the only cellular network operators they had access to were South Africa’s Cell C and MTN. It therefore, didn’t shock me much when I was told that some people, who live there think that Jacob Zuma is their president.