Zim needs be more vigilant than before
IN times where governments in Africa are battling with the debacle of peace and security, strong security institutions are paramount to ensure a balance in constitutional exercises. It should be the role of security institutions to conscientise the public in their right to register dissent responsibly as much as it should be their role to curb any criminal activity during demonstrations. With such security, we would avoid disturbing and unfortunate instances of unnecessary casaulities where those who are not part of destructive mobiles are the casualties of such a right exercised irresponsibly.
Today, with a population whose social, economic and political consciousness is enabled by extensive education, media and interaction exposure, quarters of difference are multiple hence you will not find normally “binaryhomogenous” groups dissenting. The level of consciousness has bred conscientiousness that has created strata that do not agree with those dissenting or those supporting; it is both groups, together with those agreeing with the status quo who should be protected by strong security institutions. Equally, those intending to exercise their right to demonstrate, should be protected by the same security institutions. Perhaps, it is time we establish dialogue on security, protection and limitations of civil rights in a modern society, methods of security reaction in highly emotive times.
I reflect on 1945, 1956, 1992 and 1996 deliberately to show the connection of the monumental protests. The first common thing amongst the actions is that they are class identical, meaning, it is the same social class (working/poor/lower) that is found challenging state actions, in a bid to secure their survival. This historical analysis is living proof that the lower class of the society is mostly affected by economic changes in society, accompanied by many social defects such as unbalanced population, limited access to resources, limited access to avenues of prosperity because of quality of education and social background and more susceptible to hunger in times of drought and low to no household income. Because of its character, the strata is the most insecure in volatile times and because of its economic desperation most of the times, its members are susceptible of many manipulations that put them at the jaws’ end of criminal activity and in the line of casualties.
The same demographic was found exercising its democratic right under the new constitution in 2016 during the Evan Mawarire announced shutdown, however, in a different circumstance. In all this, influences on the demographic thought process and reactions to its distressing conditions keep on changing whilst it’s still insecure and they still are battling a class struggle. In 2016, roads were barricaded, private property was damaged, albeit minimal compared to 2019 but the concerns of the lower class remained persistent.
What John Lunn, a notable historian, describes as “a watershed decade in the evolution of African labour’ was marked by 20 October 1945, recorded to be the first major protest by railway workers, who for nine days, staged a protest that spilt to Broken Hill in Northern Rhodesia and involved approximately 10 000 workers. This historical strike only ended when government promised to set up a commission of inquiry to investigate workers’ grievances and related matters such as rising inflation and stagnant wages that were eroding the workers’ living standards as well as poor and overcrowded accommodation. On that occasion, 74 years ago, private property was not destroyed, protestors were not coerced, general citizens did not feel unsafe at the hands of the protestors, at least there is no such record. What makes 1945 favourable and probably a point in history to ponder on is what it yielded thereafter, a significant change in law and wellbeing of the worker to the extent of expanding the advocacy net in 1948.
A decade later, in 1956, back home, led by the City Youth league that had the brains of young activists namely George Nyandoro, James Chikerema, Edson Sithole and Duduza Chisiza, the Bus Boycott was successfully staged. The youth’s used the increase in bus fares as a microcosm agent of registering dissent against an organism of structural violence meted on Africans in Rhodesia. It is reported that this well organised boycott, which encompassed most of Harare’s townships, became violent and led to the unfortunate incident in which several women were raped at Carter House in Mbare, as retribution for breaking the boycott by riding on buses. Reading through various analyses of that “shutdown’ in 1956, some historians such as Scholar AS Mlambo, writing in 2008 argue that it is more likely that unruly elements took advantage of the boycott to pursue their own ends to the possible embarrassment of the leadership; there is no evidence that City Youth league leaders sanctioned violence, especially sexual violence.
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