Methinks the ruling party has set a precedent for itself. Greed, discrimination, corruption, selfishness, incompetency, vindictiveness etc will trigger another “coup” within the party if it does not reform.
By Kamurai Mudzingwa
After this phase when President Robert Mugabe is gone, will the party deal with the vices cited above?
Can the party reform itself and open a relatively fresh page with good corporate governance as its point of reference? Individuals within the party may wish for such, but there are certain habits within the party that may dictate otherwise.
Incompetent people will expect to be given cabinet and government posts and some of them will get them as reward as was the norm during Mugabe’s time, others will not be “rewarded” and disgruntlement will set in. Remember this is largely about power.
Corruption, a bloated government with duplicate positions and incompetent people (jobs for boys and girls) was normalised in the party and this works against the economy. The party might want to continue on this path to accommodate as many of its members as possible.
Being a party with vindictive people, some will want to exact revenge on others and the opposition, fuelling conflicts in and outside the party. Using the liberation war mantra, the party may use the same old faces to run the government and most of these are known failures (look at our economy) and they are also hardliners who can’t embrace diversity.
Ironically, diversity is not only found outside the party, it is also within the party.
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One of the bad habits within the party is failure to distinguish between government and party business; this temporarily works for the party but in the long run it doesn’t as it negatively impacts on the country’s economy and the manner of doing government business.
It gives advantage to those members of the party who are in government economically and politically. It is this weakness that allowed First Lady Grace to publicly “chastise” top civil servants, ministers and the army commanders even though she was not in government.
Those in government are allowed to abuse government resources for political campaigns even at party level much to the chagrin of party members outside government and the public.
The party ends up with one small group of extremely happy and contended members (those in government) and another group of unhappy members within the party. The result is obvious; nasty fights (rather than cooperation) among party members leading to factions and an impoverished citizenry.
These factions disrupt government business and distort policy. We saw for example, how one side of Mugabe’s government was extolling the virtues of Command Agriculture while the other side was trashing it. The indigenisation issue also comes to mind. Examples of conflicting policy pronouncements are galore.
The problem with such fights is that the youth and ordinary citizens are used as pawns and the people will not only hate those fighting, but the party as well. It is a recipe for uprisings.
The party’s discriminatory tendencies do not help. Anyone who disagrees with them, even if they are pushing for foolish ideas like printing useless money, is regarded as an enemy.
The opposition is regarded as an enemy that must be crushed. The folly of this is that the party finds itself in untenable situations such as presiding over a dying economy that triggers national civil strife. Hunger has this effect of uniting friend and foe and the result is that some of the party members end up teaming up with the opposition to fight their own party much to the delight of the oppressed.
Already, there are conflicting signals coming from the party. Patrick Chinamasa has clearly stated that they do not need the opposition, while war veterans leader Christopher Mutsvangwa is saying everyone is welcome to fight for one goal. The party in most cases applies Chinamasa’s mentality.
Government jobs, Cabinet posts, land and investment opportunities among other things are given on a camaraderie basis at the expense of talent, skill, knowledge etc. We have all seen the effects; we only need to think about Zupco, Air Zimbabwe, David Whitehead, and service delivery to confirm the effects. It is the norm in the party to put politics ahead of everything including the economy, thus inviting hunger and anger.
It is also the norm in the party to push for laws designed to “fix” everyone else so that it remains in power. Everything has its side effects; the same laws are making it difficult to topple their own leader, as they desire to. Of course the party will never accede to electoral reforms.
There are too many individuals in the party who cannot imagine any other party ruling the country just like Mugabe could not imagine anyone at the helm of the party and the country. They have a warped sense of entitlement. Such thinking is not progressive and invites unpleasant removal.
What the party fails to understand is that generally people don’t care who rules them if things are done properly and they are happy. The party seems to think people want them or must want them even though its government is impoverishing them. This is fallacy at its worst. If the party crafts and implements policies that make people happy and that encourage prosperity, harmony, peace and love why would people want it out of power?
As the new dispensation is here the question on many people’s minds is: will the party cast its old skin or will it remain with the same old one? Skeptics are already doubtful that the party’s old habits will die with the removal of President Mugabe.
However, the party has set itself a precedent that they can revolt against their own leader and remove him. This should serve as a warning to whoever will run the party, and inevitably the country, that if the majority are not happy things can go wrong for the leader and eventually for the party. It may take time but it will eventually happen.
The future leader should eliminate arrogance, corruption, discrimination, theft etc by party members as this translates to government behaviour.
Right now Zimbabwe needs a unifier, a person who takes them out of their economic problems. A person who makes them forget the Mugabe era.
Is the ruling party ready for this? Is it able to shed its old skin and start anew or it is on the path of inviting another internal coup? If, as people fear, we will have the same old party then the problems and struggles bedevilling the country will get worse.
Kamurai Mudzingwa writes in his personal capacity
