Remember those young years when one is trying to figure out how babies are made and yet no one is willing to shed light? As a young boy, I decided to put that question top of my agenda on my next visit to see my grandparents in the village.
Opinion by Tapiwa Gomo
Upon arrival and after completing all the greetings and welcoming formalities I decided to off-load what, at that age, was troubling me. She laughed first before telling me that babies come from a woman’s womb. I asked her why she does not have a new baby then. She told me she had passed the age of making babies. In the presence of my mother, I knew that pursuing that line of inquiry would get me in trouble. But, that was when I learnt that there are certain things that can not happen at a certain stage in life and the same perhaps applies to institutions and political parties.
It is no secret that all signs are leading to an election. We don’t know which election will come first, the referendum or the general election. Looking at how much political parties have dominated the media space in recent weeks, it is easy to conclude that something is just by the corner.
The Zanu PF conference finally came to an end. As per tradition, it ended with resolutions that announce their presidential candidate, achievements and a way forward. Most Zimbabweans find themselves in a classical dilemma where their desire for change of ideas and leadership to give the country new direction is in conflict with the desire to retain the status-quo. This is common in both Zanu PF and the MDC-T. Now the question is: Where is change going to come from because none of the parties so far has shown any willingness to change?
The Zanu PF resolutions demonstrate their fixation to the narratives of the past with everything grounded in the revolutionary ideology. This is illustrated in its claim to be “committed to safeguarding, defending, promoting, widening and deepening the ideals and values of Zimbabwe’s heroic liberation struggle for the benefit of all Zimbabweans today and in posterity”. Their entire philosophy is built on a curious perception that the country is under attack of some sort — that there are certain countries that are having sleepless nights plotting how to invade Zimbabwe.
Such philosophy has dominated the past decade and people are now looking for solutions to the current problems. The indigenisation policy is indeed a plausible starting point if it is properly implemented and accompanied by a well thought-out national plan.
Again, while there is some acknowledgement of the need to create an enabling environment, in the resolutions, to allow people to be creative, there is, however, a strong inclination towards grabbing what already exists. Having a 51% local ownership of formerly foreign-owned companies has somewhat become the core that defines indigenisation. But the truth of the matter is that while 51% represents majority shareholding, the 49% in the hands of foreigners is not negligible. To what extent can those companies sustain if the 49% pulls out? Unless that question is addressed, that part of the indigenisation policy remains weak and unsustainable in the long term.
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Just like MDC-T’s Juice economic blue print, employment is key on Zanu PF agenda targeting young people. But, of course there is an interesting difference.
Where the MDC promises to create a million jobs in five years, Zanu PF’s agenda promises to create employment opportunities. An employment opportunity remains a chance or possibility and does not always translate into a job or meaningful employment for the people.
Take for example; when a company is applying for an operating licence, it elaborates the approximate number of employees it requires.
Even before the company starts operating, that declaration alone is recorded as an employment opportunity.
The problem with this approach is that a company can remain registered and not operational, which means the employment opportunities have not transformed into a real job.
In addition, asking youth or women’s leagues to cut grass along streets and roads has of late been considered by politicians as creating employment opportunities but we know that grass does not grow every season.
The ANC used the same formula to promise their people that they would create millions of employment opportunities during World Cup 2010 and when the people started toy-toying, the implied response was simple; the party did not promise jobs but opportunities.
However, depending on how each party elaborates its policy, one that promises jobs is easy to hold accountable than one that promises employment opportunities because its level of accountability lies not in the jobs themselves but in opportunities. Paradoxically, one that promises employment opportunities offers a wide spectrum of the definitions and interpretation of the concept of employment ranging from the job itself to informal trading.
These are not new phenomena in Zimbabwe, which therefore beg an answer to the question: Is there anything new that came out of the ZanuPF conference?
- Tapiwa Gomo is a development consultant based in Pretoria, South Africa
