Comrades in Power: Four Decades of ‘Turmoil and Tenacity’ in Zimbabwe.

Comrades in Power: Four Decades of ‘Turmoil and Tenacity’ in Zimbabwe.

Our Very Long Century: From Cecil Rhodes to Massage Wheel Chairs

In a recent statement the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) John Mangudya revealed a startling fact; that while the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) lies in disrepair Zimbabwe continues re-paying the debt that was incurred in electrifying the Harare-Dabuka railway line.  By implication this can also be extended to the dozens of loans advanced to the several state owned enterprises which now lie in ruins hollowed out by the ‘comrades in power’.  This is but a very shameful public admission by one of the ruling elites that they have failed to attend to the structural deformities of Zimbabwe’s economy which are mostly self-inflicted. On the 18^th of April 2017, Zimbabwe will be marking 37 years of independence and self-rule from British colonial and white-settlerism rule and this will be almost four decades since the ‘comrades’ got into power and it was after a very long bitter struggle going back almost a century from the first Chimurenga and Umvukela.  

 1.0 War Vets: Will they deliver another Stalinist Cult?

The political economy implications of that very long contestation for de-colonisation continue to cast a very long shadow which continue to haunt Zimbabwe’s protracted search for a better polity. Those that rule over us continue marshalling history to their aid in explaining why they are the only logical ‘ruling power’ and  they pay no heed to demands of real political plurality as they pursue nothing but political power to access the state largesse. As nature slowly, chaperons the emperor to the ‘massage-wheelchair’ it seems its now Dan Fulani’s “God’s Case and No Appeal”. The fragmentations continue apace and the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans seem to have already concluded that Emerson Mnagangwa must be in the palace or else they will ‘vote for a stick. The former guerrillas, who first delivered Zimbabwe’s first Stalinist cult in the current ‘emperor’  seem to be hell bent on delivering another Stalin cult  and in this adventure the citizen is not in the matrix. In light of Zimbabwe’s quick-sand political terrain the question which comes to the fore as we mark  almost four decades of independence is what are the prospects of a stable, democratic polity in which citizens have opportunities to realise their potential.

‘Love and Scandals’: Moments of Madness and the Schizophrenic State

Perhaps brother Solomon Skuza’s hit song “Love and Scandals’ summed up the passing away of the 1980s as Zimbabwe’s elites threw away what was called the ‘leadership code’ and plunged into outright looting.  The post-colonial ruling elites have zig zagged along a path that today has brought us into a collapsed political economy. First the state led developmental project of the 1980s came to a sad end at the beginning of the 1990s and the brother Ibbo Mandaza had warned about its unsustainability because the state was relying, for revenue, on the same social forces which had anchored white settlerism. In the 1990s the party-state moved into the ‘structural adjustment program’ but by the time the 1990s ended Zimbabwe was fast de-industrializing and since then stretching into the 2000s the ruling elites have clothed themselves with all sort of radical rhetoric including a ‘look east’ policy, a ‘land re-distribution’ program and an indigenisation program which have all failed to deliver economic and social progress in the post-colony.  We have argued before that Frantz Fanon’s 1963 warning was precise that our ruling elites do not comprehend national political-economics and have only led us down the path of mobilizing the party-state apparatus for selfish aggrandizement.

The emergence of a powerful labour movement, a wide women’s movement, an active student movement and eventually the Movement of Democratic Change (MDC)  at the end of the 1990s was an attempt to respond politically to a nationalism which had reached a cul de sac and become ‘exhausted’ as observed by Patrick Bond and Masimba Manyanya in their seminal ‘Zimbabwe Plunge’ inquiry.

1.2 MDC: A Political Response to Nationalist Authoritarianism

But if it this nationalism was exhausted in terms of solutions the party-state was still alive with crude authoritarian power  and responded by unleashing this public power on the citizen starting with heavy handedness in responding to the ‘food riots’ of the mid 1990s. The ruling elites have relied more on violence as a tool of domination especially against opposition political parties and civil society voices regarded as too vocal. Effectively running through the year 2000 the ruling elites dusted their liberation credentials and helped by ‘patriotic history’ they reappeared as the liberation vanguard of the masses. Clothing this radical nationalism was a propaganda of de-colonisation, re-distributing land and black economic empowerment. This propaganda was under-estimated by the ‘urban intelligentsia’ based movements which became enveloped in the necessary but partial questions of liberal democracy.

So, effectively 2000 marks an intriguing split: the very relevant questions of democracy and authoritarian state political practices are embedded in the contestations for a ‘new constitution’ via the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA). The MDC, a consequence of the National People’s Working Convention, constituted a very progressive platform which captured the raging discontentment of the emergent post-colonial social classes yet as it evolved the critique of the ruling elites’ failure to deal with land redistribution and building a wider more equitable economy slowly melted away. On the other hand, ZANU PF, relying on crude and often extra-judicial state power presented itself as the praetorian of the de-colonisation project, clothed itself in patriotic history robes and facilitated the jambanja political economy. For the social classes based in the urban areas this move by the ruling elites was seen as a temporary political manoeuvre yet it somehow re-ignited explosive and emotive questions of social justice which became a mobilising factor in the rural areas. Make no mistake about it, the rural mobilisation and dominance of the ruling elites has been achieved by much violence and coercion or what Dorman (2015) has called the descend from ‘liberation to authoritarianism’.

Dissonances in Social Forces : Political Fragmentations and Shifting Alliances

On one hand, ZANU PF having revived its liberation credentials, has attracted all sorts of assemblages around it and these social forces have been quick to understand that as long as they remain loyal, the party-state will be at their disposal.  The War Vets, other groupings like the Affirmative Action Group (AAG) and those within the state apparatus have assembled around ZANU PF and have been very quick to swallow the rhetoric but also, they have been reaping the rewards of patronage. Just recently the RBZ announced that it will give $15m to cross border traders’ and upon digging it turns out that the one of theirs will be in charge of that ‘loot’. The party-state apparatus either infiltrated organisations or simply formed others like  the Zimbabwe Congress of Student Unions (ZICOSU) and trade unions like Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions (ZFTU) in order to confuse the social forces outside their orbit. The intention was to ‘divide and rule’ but also to gather around ZANU PF those social forces that had become critical of the ruling elites through the dangling of state largesse. Where the divide and rule policy failed they simply bludgeoned the opponents into submission.

1.3 Infamous ‘Green Bombers’: Shock Troopers for Violence?

On the other hand, the MDC and NCA gathered around themselves mainly social forces likes the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU), Women’s Movement, Church and NGOs among many others that sought to create a ‘post-nationalist’ democratic order. The passing pf the new constitution in 2013, warts and all, is a hallmark of this movement’s historic power.  The urban assemblage was outraged with mainly (i) the rapid de-industrialisation which has led to a very informal economy; (ii) the collapse of social and public services which have led to the resurgence of feudal diseases like ‘cholera’ and ‘typhoid’ and most critically (iii) the rise of state authoritarianism witnessed in the general collapse of the rule of law.

This binary, of ZANU PF  seemingly being more concerned with social justice issues and the post-colonial movements being concerned with ‘liberal rights’ has almost assumed an urban/rural line. This might seem fleeting and not worth of attention yet it is absolutely critical to crack in order emancipatory project to be very national: meaning to be relevant both to the Harvard speech giving lawyer outraged by the collapse in the rule of law; to the mukorokoza being elbowed off their dig; to  the Manzou settlers’ houses being razed to the ground and to Collen Gura’s eviction from his Macadamia Farm in Chipinge to pave way for the political elites. These social forces are all grappling with big structural questions or what Moore (2003) summarised as ‘nation-state formation’, ‘primitive accumulation’ and ‘democratisation’.  Grasping these deep rooted questions, will assist our civil society and citizens’ movements to contextualise independence within the ordinary man’s lived realities and provide a cogent response to ‘mirages’ of nationalist authoritarianism.

Fadzayi Mahere & Mbuya VaGeorge From Buhera: Reconciling the Perspectives?

 At the heart of the contestations of the ‘new’ social movements or what has been called the ‘hashtag’ movements are very important questions of political practices by the ruling elite. The ‘new’ social movements have roots in Zimbabwe’s post-colonial contestations for a democratic constitution and that post-colonial civil society movement for ‘democratic’ rights is historically rooted in the liberation  project. The ruling elites have continuously deployed a sweeping propaganda which wants to de-legitimise the clamour for democracy as a ‘western’ inspired conspiracy and this is not supported by facts; the liberation and de-colonisation project was also about democratisation as in what was then called the ‘National Democratic Revolution’. However those in the ‘modern economy’ meaning those that are mostly in the ‘urban’ seem to have a short sight on all things national and all things historical.

1.4 Katswe Sistahood: Continuing the Women’s Struggle

We have argued elsewhere (Journal of African Elections, 2013) that a civil society critique of nationalist authoritarianism which is limited in analysis provides a weak building platform. From the clamours for the rule of law, functioning public health and service delivery system by the urban based Fadzayi Mahere;  Mbuya VaGeorge condemned to the barren dusty sands of dry and hot Buhera whose hopes for an A1 plot either at Manzou or the many dotted new farms around the country and the victims of urban demolitions; they all face the same problems of a ruling elite that has become a law unto itself and only concerned by its self-enrichment projects. Prof Makau Mutua, haunted out of Kenya by the Arap Moi, regime has argued that socio-economic and civil liberties are not exclusive but mutually inclusive and Prof Issa Shivji has been loud about the fact that the liberation project was a democratisation project.

Liberation, Independence and Zimbabwe’s Future: Beyond the Blinding Binaries

The women movement demanding equitable inheritance laws; the new farmer demanding title deeds; the resident demanding better social services; the diaspora resident demanding voting rights; the so called ‘radical’ black empowerment maverick demanding more participation in the economy; the hashtag so called click-activist demanding more funding for the hospital; the war veteran demanding a democratic polity; and above all the young unemployed graduate demanding employment all have one common thread running through them: they are demanding a payment of the liberation dividend and in that equation the citizen becomes more bound to each other than what the politician would have us believe. 

For the brothers at the War Vets Indaba the call for a democratic polity becomes a welcome voice; for the sisters at Katswe raising a fist against patriarchy and violence becomes a welcome fury; for the resident stomping the ground for a better service; for the black sister and black brother wanting better opportunities become a welcome relief. When those that think about the theoretical frames of the post-independent contestation rise above the false blinding binaries then perhaps a truly emancipatory project becomes possible.

The coming of the NCA and MDC onto the political front marked the intense contestation for state power and saw the re-alignment of internal classes as the ruling elite started to fragment only to be re-joined by the re-distribution agenda. From the state led development initiatives, through ESAP, through the jambanja political economy and more recently the ‘look east’ policy’ the ruling elites are confronted with one glaring factor: redistribution without growth has limits. From the women’s movement contestations, the student and labour movement insurrections and finally the emergence of the MDC and of late the ‘new ‘social movements a glaring factor stares the progressive social forces in the face like an inconvenient fact; the democracy agenda can not be de-contextualised into a cover for political power without dealing with painful historical facts. 

Perhaps some beautiful ones are being born somewhere and they will be able to weave this into an intelligible political project without which the Jacob Zumas, the Mugabes and the Malemas will steamroll Southern Africa into a vortex of populism and economic collapse riding on the ghosts of history. The project of decolonisation and importantly post-colonial transformation requires strategic deployment of public policy which our ruling elites only pay lip-service to. So, after a journey of four decades Zimbabweans still finding themselves hemmed in by a ‘nationalist authoritarian’ elite and yet the tools of dismantling a ruling hegemon gone wild it must be informed by both a historical  and contemporary perspective.

Notice from Editors.

The next Gravitas will be a Special Issue assessing the de-colonisation project of liberation and what independence mean for the present day Zimbabwe.