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A call for a new national consensus
By Concerned
Zimbabweans
TWENTY six years after independence, in the wake of a protracted people’s
rebellion against colonial rule and struggle for self-determination
dating back to 1890 which was benchmarked by 15 years of a costly armed
insurrection between 1965 and 1980, Zimbabwe is once again at the crossroads
pregnant with a people’s revolution: chimurenga che vanhu
or umvukela wabantu.
The stark reality in Zimbabwe today that cannot be denied by any responsible person across the political divide is that the organization and management of the national economy has collapsed along with the delivery of essential public services at a time when our country has become more isolated from the international community than at any other time in its history.
This in turn has taken a devastating toll not only on the performance of business enterprises and public institutions many of which have been crippled beyond their purpose but has also destroyed the livelihood of ordinary people who can no longer make ends meet in very harsh economic conditions. Chronic suffering among Zimbabweans has become endemic.
To repeat, the living disaster for Zimbabweans today is that the organization and management of the national economy has collapsed together with key public institutions while we have become isolated as a country as a direct result of the bad policies of the ruling few in Zanu PF.
Even the opprobrium
of Rhodesia was not as isolated as we have become. This disaster is
a monumental crisis.
What makes this bad situation worse is the unprecedented fact that the
ruling Zanu PF government does not have the national vision, political
will and technical competence to resolve the crisis. Widespread paralysis
has become the order of the day in the public service.
The manifest symptoms of this crisis include inflation that last February hit 782%, and is now threatening to break the four digit barrier, unemployment that is over 85%, poverty that is over 90% with rampant corruption that has become the norm in officialdom.
Basic goods and commodities, including fuel and maize meal, have become either unavailable or unaffordable. As things stand, the United Nations estimates that some four million Zimbabweans are in desperate need of food while more than 3 000 die a week due HIV/AIDS related illnesses including malnutrition.
Zimbabweans are now finding it very hard to access or afford health care or to send their children to school. This has been worsened by the wanton destruction by the ruling Zanu PF government of the homes or livelihood or both for 18% of the population that survived on what was before then a thriving informal sector.
Meanwhile the business community has lost confidence in the national economy, that is now being treated as an outcast by international markets, as the high interest rates in a hyperinflationary environment have combined with poor access to forex and uncertain property rights, especially over land and mining, to make Zimbabwe the worst country in the world outside a war zone to do business with.
As already mentioned what makes this bad situation for Zimbabwean businesses and consumers worse, apart from or even in addition to international isolation, is the unprecedented fact that the ruling Zanu PF government is clueless about what to do as it is without a requisite national vision, political will and technical competence to understand the unfolding crisis, let alone to resolve it. The Zanu PF government is totally bewildered and absolutely overwhelmed by the crisis and this explains why there is now widespread paralysis in government.
A major reason why the government bureaucracy is now bewildered and overwhelmed by the crisis arising from the collapse of the national economy, and its international isolation, both caused by the ruling few in Zanu PF to the point of paralysis, is because the resolution of the crisis now requires much more than policy firefighting by bureaucrats or tinkering with economic symptoms such as inflation and corruption that have been glibly declared by government as the country’s two competing top enemies.
What is now required is a thorough going structural reform of the country’s system of national and local governance and a redefinition of the rights and responsibilities of citizens in constitutional terms along with a comprehensive structural reform of the national economy from one based on the delivery fiction of the centralized state to one based on the realities of the market against the backdrop of the dynamics and challenges of technology and globalization.
In effect what is required is a new national consensus, to wit, a new societal order driven by a new social contract rooted in the values of democratic nationalism; values that forever pay homage to the legacy and gains of our heroic liberation struggle while respecting the individual human being, building strong local communities and staying alive to the power of the market economy and the advantages of technology in a globalized world in which we, as Zimbabweans, must pursue our dreams while also discharging our commensurate international responsibilities and meeting our obligations.
We know for a fact that many Zimbabweans, who for understandable historical reasons dating back to our liberation struggle are either members of Zanu PF or have supported Zanu PF, are disappointed and even dismayed by the inescapable fact that the leadership of the ruling party has over the years become too self-indulgent and too selfish to the point of becoming too irresponsible about issues of national governance as now evidenced by the collapse of our national economy and the unprecedented international isolation of our country. Virtually all of the original ideals of Zanu PF as a liberation movement have been compromised and corrupted by a clique of individuals who have substituted themselves for the ruling party and even the country under self-serving claims of sovereignty.
While our country is burning, and the people are suffering to the core, these self-serving individuals in power are busy preoccupying themselves with petty issues around President Robert Mugabe’s succession that has already been arranged in favour of Joyce Mujuru and are in the process corrupting the law through the making of cynical piecemeal constitutional amendments to further entrench their political positions while abusing some elements of national security forces to settle scores against perceived enemies.
That is why Zanu PF today does not have any shared ideology and why the only thing keeping the ruling party together precariously is the mere fact of controlling the government. Sadly, that government is now in an irretrievable paralysis, unable to deliver the required goods and services to the people and unable and unwilling to reform.
It would be a tragedy and a travesty of human responsibility if the corruption and abuse of Zanu PF by the clique of individuals in power is allowed to lead to the wholesale damnation and indiscriminate condemnation of the many members and supporters of Zanu PF who have also, like everyone else, fallen victim to the machinations of the ruling few in government.
Zanu PF, after all, is just a name. More to the point, Zanu PF is now beyond internal reform as amply demonstrated by the dramatic events of November 2004 leading to the so-called Tsholotsho Declaration. The many in Zanu PF who are among the suffering Zimbabweans have no reason to die for a name that now specifically and exclusively represents the few individuals who are in power and who are against the necessary political and economic reforms.
Therefore the new national consensus, as a People’s Revolution, must particularly embrace the many in Zanu PF who have been crowded out and who are now among the suffering Zimbabweans due to the collapse of our national economy and the international isolation of our country caused by the ruling few in Zanu PF.
Outside Zanu PF, the emergence of a new national consensus has been blurred and blunted by the recent unfortunate divisions that have rocked the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), leaving it with two factions.
These divisions
have serious negative national implications in two respects.
In the first instance, the ruling few in Zanu PF have been buoyed by
the divisions which they have conveniently interpreted to mean the death
of the opposition. That is why there is now palpable arrogance in the
ranks of the ruling party regarding attitudes towards the opposition
in general as the belief in the ruling party is now that the real challenge
is within Zanu PF in terms of the ongoing factional and tribal struggles
to succeed President Mugabe. Even voter apathy, such as was witnessed
in the recent Chegutu mayoral election and Bulawayo council by elections,
have been interpreted by Zanu PF propagandists to mean that support
for the ruling party is growing!
Secondly, in addition to giving Zanu PF a false sense of comfort which has become a breeding ground for the new arrogance of power in the ruling party, the MDC divisions have dispirited not just the members of the MDC as it originally was but, and even more damaging, the divisions have also dispirited the general population which is directly being affected by the collapse of the economy caused by the ruling Zanu PF few. Yet the general public, reeling from the harsh economic conditions, was beginning to look to the opposition for alternative constitutional, institutional and policy remedies.
This development
has been further complicated by the very worrying fact that the MDC
divisions have been reproduced and spread within civil society groups,
the media and donors active in funding NGO work in Zimbabwe all of whom
have taken sides in support of one or the other of the two feuding factions.
The development could not have come at worse time given the effects
of the economic and institutional collapse on ordinary people everywhere
across the country and it does not assist the growth of the democratic
process in any way.
As a result, the national mood in Zimbabwe is now thoroughly dispirited
and thus circumspect about the capacity and prospect of the opposition
to be united and focused given the task at hand.
There is no serious minded Zimbabwean who believes that a divided opposition can dislodge the ruling few who are using the name of Zanu PF to destroy the economy and to cause the international isolation of our country in pursuit of their selfish and corrupt ends for more personal power.
As recent experiences
in countries like Zambia, Malawi and Kenya readily show, it is not possible
for a divided opposition to foster democratic change and to engender
democratic constitutionalism and good national and local governance.
This is particularly so in a country, such as Zimbabwe today, where
the national economy and public institutions have collapsed and where
essential services such as food, health, education, housing and transport
are no longer available or affordable. In such a situation, what is
necessary in the opposition is a nationalist democratic movement that
becomes EVERYONE’S PARTY! This is what a People’s Revolution
is all about.
In fact, the collapse of the economy and public institutions, the increased international isolation of Zimbabwe, the policy paralysis in government, the ideological alienation of the majority of Zanu PF members and supporters and the dispiriting divisions in the opposition have all combined to create very dangerous social conditions that could spark spontaneous violence and plunge Zimbabwe into social chaos and deep seated instability.
Zimbabwe today needs everyone’s party, bringing people together across the political divide as the summation of a People’s Revolution, to provide the new national consensus based on a new national vision for a new viable and sustainable societal order with ethos that are just and equitable. This would play a major part towards conflict prevention.
The People’s Revolution would address the collapse of public institutions and the economy and the international isolation of Zimbabwe by designing and implementing the necessary comprehensive structural and policy reforms in both national governance and the economy.
To get started, there is a critical need for some neutral organization preferably a national NGO or some clergy representatives or, because the crisis now admittedly has an intrinsic international dimension, even the International Crisis Group (ICG) to urgently facilitate dialogue among key representatives of opposition parties and civic society groups along with key opinion makers towards the formation of EVERYONE’S PARTY as an expression of the People’s Revolution in response to the collapse of public institutions and the national economy including the international isolation of Zimbabwe caused by the ruling few in Zanu PF who are opposed to political and economic reform.
A critical step in this regard would be the identification of a “neutral” rallying point that could be supported by everyone across the political divide, and could be an effective mobilization tool, given the breadth and depth of the economic crisis on the ground and its negative impact on everyone regardless of their position in society.
One such possible rallying point is the call for the harmonization of presidential and parliamentary elections by 2008. This call should specifically be made as a response to the deepening plight of the consumers and businesses in Zimbabwe. There is an urgent need for new popular politics and new mobilization strategies built around the worsening all inclusive plight of consumers and businesses.
Already, there is a growing national consensus that presidential and parliamentary elections should be held concurrently. The few in Zanu PF who are controlling the government have hinted that they might table constitutional amendments to harmonize presidential and parliamentary elections in 2010.
Under the Zanu PF proposal, when President Mugabe’s constitutional tenure expires in March 2008, which is less than 24 months away, Zimbabweans would be denied their right to vote as Zanu PF would use its controversial and contested technical two-thirds majority in Parliament to vote for a “transitional President” to serve between 2008 and 2010. That transitional president would be the unelectable Joyce Mujuru whom Zanu PF queen makers fear cannot win a popular election within 24 months and therefore needs to be protected from a popular vote until she is able to use the patronage spoils of being president in office to try and win votes.
Allowing Zanu PF to postpone presidential elections to 2010, thus denying Zimbabweans their birth right to vote for a President of their choice between 2008 and 2010 would be an attack on the fundamental voting rights of the people and should not be accepted under any circumstance.
It is in this regard, that the calling for the harmonization of presidential and parliamentary elections to take effect by 2008 by the People’s Revolution would be an important strategic rallying point. This would also have an added advantage of agenda setting for democratic forces regarding not only the need for a new democratic constitution, whose content should be agreed ahead of the 2008 harmonized presidential and parliamentary elections for implementation within 100 days of a new democratic order after the elections, but also for the design and adoption of a new market based economic recovery programme supported by the international community.
Here is a summary of the concluding point: (1) There is a need for a neutral facilitator to bring together key representatives of political parties, civic society groups, business organizations and key opinion makers to brainstorm over the creation of a united opposition front representing the People’s Revolution;
(2) The united opposition front, the People’s Revolution would come about in order to specifically find a solution to Zimbabwe’s collapsed public institutions, national economy and the international isolation of the country by addressing the worsening plight of consumers and businesses;
(3) To galvanize the nation and mobilize popular support for the People’s Revolution to solve address the collapse of public institutions, national economy and international isolation of Zimbabwe, there must be a political rallying point which is acceptable across the political divide and the one rallying point suggested here is the harmonization of presidential and parliamentary elections by 2008 and this would open the floodgates for real democratic action in favour of the much needed political and economic reforms;
(4) the united front would then use this rallying point to secure agreement on a new constitution and new economic blueprint for the country to take effect within 100 days of the new government after the harmonized elections;
(5) Because there
is now less than 24 months before the expiry of President Mugabe’s
term in March 2008, and because conditions that could spark spontaneous
violent conflict are now present, action must begin now.
PEOPLE’S REVOLUTION, CHIMURENGA CHE VANHU, UMVUKELA WABANTU
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