Zanu PF politburo member Joshua Malinga has come out in full support of devolution of power, sentiments that conflict with his party leader President Robert Mugabe, who recently described that governance system as divisive.
The Zanu PF politburo has also taken a position against the inclusion of devolution in the new constitution despite the concept receiving support during the outreach programme on the new constitution.
Speaking at a Leadership Spotlight public meeting organised by a Bulawayo-based civic organisation Contemporary Affairs Foundation, Malinga yesterday said devolution of power was the highest form of democracy.
“Personally, I know that there are some people called minorities.
“They come in many forms:women, ethnic tribes, and so on.
“There is no system that captures the aspirations of the minorities than devolution of power or a devolved system of governance,” said Malinga, drawing wild cheers from the crowd. The former Bulawayo mayor became the first senior Zanu PF official to publicly speak in support of devolution of power.
The meeting, held at the Music Academy next to the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair grounds, was also attended by Zapu leader Dumiso Dabengwa and MDC director for elections Paul Themba Nyathi.
“There is no majoritarian approach which captures the needs of the minority. Perhaps, I need to be educated on that,” Malinga said on devolution. “Before I came here, I checked the Oxford Dictionary. Decentralisation is defined as the transfer of authority. Devolution is the transfer of power. I have never met a person who doesn’t want power. I have never seen anyone who wants authority. Authority is something I can give you and take away like that. People want what is theirs — power.” Malinga said people were their own liberators, hence the need to give them the power that they seek through devolution of power.
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“What I have seen in the past 32 years of Zimbabwe’s independence is that you are your own liberators. Whether you are a woman, you are Shona or you are Ndebele, or you are disabled, you liberate yourself,” said Malinga, who is wheelchair-bound being disabled.
“The point is that there is no person or group of persons better than others in this country. “This country has everything to feed all the 15 million people who inhabit it, but it doesn’t have enough for greedy people.”
On the eve of his 88th birthday celebrations in February, Mugabe declared that devolution would not be included in the new constitution, claiming it would divide the country along tribal lines. “We don’t want to divide the country into small pieces because it will cause disunity among our people,” Mugabe said.
“Those things are done in big countries, not to a small country like ours. We once had this, under the Federation which included Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Nyasaland (Malawi). Some are talking about separating the Matabeleland region to become a country — that is impossible, we don’t want that. But Malinga said tribalism was a post-independence invention and it was important to root it out. “There was never any tribalism,” he said.
“What is amazing is that it came after independence. Let’s go back and find our roots, and seek to find where tribalism came from, who brought it and why.”
