Zim needs a new type of politics
FOR over two decades, Zimbabwe has lurched from one crisis to another and during which much of its politics has turned toxic characterised as it is by intolerance, violence, and corruption.
Rarely is the national interest used to scrutinise the ideas, principles, and the systems championed by the different political parties and in particular their leaders. Instead, much effort is spent valorising the leaders of one’s political party and demonising all others and especially the voices of those who hold a different point of view.
This has been made more obvious from the events of the past four weeks, which provide a small window into the challenges facing the country.
First is the COVID-19 pandemic which is spreading in the region and the country. With limited testing facilities, it is likely that the figures provided by the government understate the country’s true mortality rate.
Second were the calls for countrywide demonstrations which did not materialise as planned on July 31 in part because of a heavy clampdown by the security forces.
Third, on July 30, the government announced that it had agreed to pay US$3,5 billion to a group of former farmers whose land was expropriated during the late Robert Mugabe’s rule.
The issues, which received and continue to receive the most coverage locally and internationally concern the planned demonstrations and the expressions of outrage following the abhorrent methods used by the security forces to suppress free expression.
It is concerning, however, that there has been little discussion of the planned demonstration’s impact on the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, and economic and political risks posed by the agreement to pay former farmers US$3,5 billion. Failure to learn lessons
Most discerning observers will agree that much of the news about Zimbabwe in the past 20 years has been negative and, in many cases, deservedly so.
Reports on violations of rule of law, the brutalisation of citizens, and endemic corruption have all come to characterise the nation’s crisis.
Those in Zanu PF say the country’s economy is on its knees because of the opposition and the regular calls made by some of its members for sanctions.
While those in the opposition put the blame squarely on Zanu PF, the tragedy is that this is an example of the kindergarten politics peculiar to Zimbabwe.
The politics of hate characterised by the demonisation of those holding opposing views has not helped Zimbabwe.
The use of violence principally by Zanu PF has only served to entrench positions.
Sanctions, championed mostly by those in the opposition and civil society, have not changed the country’s politics for the better 20 years since their imposition.
With the politics of both the ruling and opposition parties’ not working for the good of the country, is it not time to introspect, press the reset button, come together and agree a way out of the two decades-old crisis?
Has our internecine conflict not destroyed the country enough? Zimbabwe is in a hole, yet our leading political parties now aided by the Twittersphere continue to dig using the same old approaches of hate speech, an us-versus-them approach and the deifying of their party leaders in violation of their parties’ constitutions.
Political civility is all but dead. And neither the political parties nor the media use the national interest to explain their behaviour and policies and to ask searching questions about political parties and their leaders.
Both Zanu PF and the MDC have become quite adept at creating political crisis some of which have geopolitical implications which harm the nation.
And, the characters involved have become ever more colourful with politicians trading insults and talking past each other. This would all make for an excellent comedy were the damage to the country and especially its poor not devastating. Demonstrations in a COVID-19 ravaged Zimbabwe
The demonstrations received the most attention. Disappointingly, no one from across the political divide has addressed the question whether it is in the national interest for demonstrations to be organised at a time when it is projected that the epicentre for the COVID-19 pandemic might be shifting to sub-Saharan Africa.
It is also projected that 7,7 million Zimbabweans face food insecurity and it is well known that the past 20 years have all but obliterated the country’s public health system.
Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic
must not be used as cover and an excuse to stop people excising their freedom of speech and assembly as protected by the Constitution.
But such a retort, accurate as it is, does not answer the question whether it is in the national interest to hold demonstrations right now in Zimbabwe given the many well-documented challenges that its citizens are facing. Calls for the imposition of sanctions
Some citizens, many of whom must be genuinely appalled at the manner the government suppressed the planned demonstrations, have called for more sanctions to be imposed on the country.
It is unclear whether the purpose behind the calls for sanctions is to get those in government to change their behaviour or if it is intended as punishment. Either way, there is no question that 20 years of sanctions have done little to change our politics for the better.
Rather, these sanctions have entrenched Zimbabwe’s image as a pariah State, which image has damaged the country’s attractiveness to both local and foreign investment.
Is it strategic to link our political squabbling to the fate of the country’s economy? The country will and must be built by those in Zanu PF and those in the opposition.
Sanctions are also a blunt instrument with many intended and unintended consequences. They also breed acrimony and invite foreign countries to punish one side of a squabbling household yet in some cases, these same foreign countries have worse similar-type problems of their own or turn a blind eye to worse problems in nations to which they are favourably disposed.
One needs to look no further than Western countries’ response to the murder in Turkey of Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi Arabia.
This begs the question: is it in Zimbabwe’s national interests for its citizens to always call for the imposition of sanctions against their own country and compatriots?
Sanctions that were imposed on the country during Mugabe’s rule remain in place and countries, such as the US have simply changed the conditions for their removal.
It is certainly arguable that this behaviour — calling for sanctions against one’s own country and compatriots — is a sign of political immaturity, a refusal to take responsibility and to exercise agency in resolving the challenges we face as a nation.