“You have to understand: As an envoy, I can’t want peace more than the protagonists . . . ,” said Kofi Annan on his resignation as the United Nations’ peace envoy to Syria in August after all his patient efforts came to nought.
Opinion by Conway Tutani
2012 was another frustrating year for Zimbabwe politically.
There was hardly any movement with the biggest political project of the year — constitution-making. Bickering after bickering — some of it looking decidedly contrived and deliberate — was the theme. Now it appears the main event of the coming year — general elections — will proceed without assurance that it will be smooth, fair and credible.
The real power and force in the country — Zanu PF — is incredibly dismissive of dissenting or merely alternative views. Now with their new-found diamond wealth — which they have syndicated and privatised — they will not be amenable to compromise. That’s clear and compelling evidence of corruption. Leadership seems to be in short supply. Condemnation of corruption appears half-hearted. Why must it take a foreigner — former South African President Thabo Mbeki — to point out that corruption is prevalent in the country when it’s plain for all to see? And why must those who point out such ills appear to be victimised for that? Despite the manifest evidence of corruption, they are not courageous about firing people.
Corruption is there in massive proportions — you can’t keep that off the table of debate. There is no meaningful revenue inflow into Treasury, but mansions are sprouting all over and expensive vehicle jamming roads. Obviously, these people are not paying their fair share of tax, shredding the social safety net, and we have to question: Is that fair? These people who are benefiting the most from the system must pay the most in taxes.
But they prefer to give “gifts” to the voters instead of the dignity of work and worth of their labour. Without popular democracy, all the gains in our economy will go to the top. Income gains must be shared with everyone, not this 1% of 1%, who live lavishly beyond your wildest imagination. Yes, they have the benefits, but what about the dangers, the backlash? Egyptians toppled a corrupt tyranny in merely 18 days, but the anger was growing in the incubator for much longer than that. Would they like to suffer the same fate? If so, they will not only lose their titles and reputations, but freedom as well. Disaster could still lie ahead for them, they’d better be warned. That is one side of the story.
The other side of the story is that both MDCs are not helping matters much either, behaving like impala bulls fighting for mating rights to the point of total exhaustion, allowing the predatory lion — Zanu PF — to easily pounce and devour them. Their intense political rivalry has allowed old hatreds to flare up — playing into the hands of Zanu PF. Persecution complex plus sense of superiority makes a toxic combination.
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The extremists in both formations of the MDC must be stopped. We know that Zimbabwe has been non-democratic, but must it be non-multicultural as well? Zimbabweans have paid a high price for democracy over the past 12 years without these directionless diversions. It is practically impossible for all Ndebeles or Shonas to think and view things uniformly or exactly alike. This has given rise to rabidity. Reading some of the comments on websites, one would think that the ongoing divorce case between Environment minister Francis Nhema and his wife Louise Sehlule, the second daughter of the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo, has everything to do with tribe whereas people fall in and out of love as individuals. No! We must never allow such nonsense in our midst.
Such categorisation is built on falsities. That is why during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Hutu moderates were massacred alongside the Tutsi minority by Hutu extremists — their own kind.
Real leaders while taking into account different characters, different cultures and different geographies, don’t accentuate these, but bridge them. They are “generalists” as opposed to “particularists”. They are mostly pragmatic as opposed to being driven by populism. If you want to be liked or be likeable all the time, you will fail. That is why now and then they need to restrain their supporters and guard against reckless optimism. There is nothing wrong with disagreeing, but what’s unacceptable is being offensive. Such reference to “tribalism” is being made with reckless abandon, without clarity and understanding. That is the State of the Nation as 2012 comes to a close. This can’t be swept under the carpet. The cycle must be broken.
There is need to set up a competent body along the lines of the Commission for Racial Equality in the United Kingdom to deal with such issues expertly and coolly, not for “players” after political capital to further inflame.
As Zimbabwe enters 2013, the nation needs men and women in leadership who are prepared to take a purposeful stand – it’s not a big ask in the circumstances where disaster could lie ahead as elections approach and polarisation reaches new, deeper levels. Mbeki can’t want peace and harmony for Zimbabwe more than us.
If need be, let’s knock heads together.
