The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? — 1 Corinthians Chapter 6 vs 7.
Report by Tapiwa Nyandoro
The contested result or 2008 Presidential run-off elections gave birth to the Government of National Unity (GNU).
And in accordance with the law of unintended consequences, the world later listened to the aggrieved contestant and MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai, now Prime Minister, thanking the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that ushered in the GNU, for giving his party and team an apprenticeship in government.
His team may be a lot wiser now than it was prior to the GNU, while the 2013 election may be theirs to lose.
Recent opinion polls seem to highlight the even match that was the outcome of the last general elections, with, however, a third of those polled, an unusually high figure by international standards, seemingly undecided.
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United States President Barack Obama won last year’s American Presidential elections by focusing on the uncommitted voter, especially in the so-called swing states.
The strategy that carried the day, the “Baracking” of voters as The Economist called it, was the use of technology and social media in an interactive campaign that targeted community interests.
The data received was sieved and refined and the message re-honed for better appeal.
Will such tactics work locally?
Tsvangirai will no doubt have studied the American spectacle, as would have President Robert Mugabe.
The two will go head-to-head in Presidential elections in the second half of 2013.
The question that may be asked, therefore, is: What should either party be doing to ensure victory?
The following subjects, which are issues with voters, present opportunities to both parties, if well addressed.
Executive team selection Elections can be divisive, leaving a nation fractured.
Statesmen usually try to mend such fractures by adopting a bi- or multi partisan approach in their policies and even in their Cabinet appointments.
In his first Cabinet, Obama retained George W Bush’s Secretary of Defence, that’s allaying the fears over national security issues of not only the Republicans, but also the formidable military machine whose commander-in-chief post he had assumed.
The Zimbabwean electorate is most likely to reward such a statesman-like approach.
It may, therefore, be to a party’s advantage to announce its Presidential team, or indeed trimmed down Cabinet list, ahead of the elections.
An MDC-T Cabinet, in which Dumiso Dabengwa, an ex-General and Zipra Commander is both the second Vice-President and Minister of Defence, might be welcomed, not only by Matabeleland, but by the uniformed forces as well.
Also, Roy Bennett, as first Vice-President and Minister of Agriculture, could extend a healing hand to the white farming community.
Similarly, a Joice Mujuru presidency, with Simon Khaya Moyo (Minister of Defence) and Welshman Ncube (Minister of Justice, Law & Order) on the two Vice-Presidency posts could do Zanu PF a lot of good.
As for Mugabe, he has the loftier ideal of integrating Sadc into a federation, alongside other luminaries such as Thabo Mbeki and Joaquim Chisano, beckons.
The demeaning court battles and Sadc summits we are forced to witness these days, would have been below the station of such comparable icons as George Washington, America’s revolutionary commander-in-chief and first President who it is said “had a genius of well timed exists, . . . that’s ensuring his country’s future as a civilian republic”.
Job creation and skills exportation News from Malawi, that the country has signed an accord to export 100 000 young Malawians to work as migrant unskilled and semi-skilled labour in South Korea, would not have gone unnoticed amongst the unemployed in Zimbabwe.
Apart from the unskilled and semi-skilled, Zimbabwe could formalise the export and production of the more lucrative skilled labour market.
Emigration of skills would create vacancies for fresh universities and colleges graduates.
Remittances from such a policy would significantly swell national coffers, and in time as the local environment improves some will come back with not only improved skills but capital and a valuable network in foreign markets.
Growing a service industry with an export biasThe training of world class skills, in line with global market demand, should be one of our major industries. All that is missing is adequate finance for student loans to make the business proposition more attractive.
Premised on sound market research the project can be funded largely off government’s balance sheet through Private-Public Partnerships and long-term loans.
The objectives of improving tertiary education quality, reducing government expenditure for the same, while ensuring employment for the output are not mutually exclusive.
Quality manpower training may precede a secondary service sector to provide off shore legal consultancies, educational and health care service tourism.
Concluding the land reform programme and mineral rights ownership question Land titling, inclusive of mineral rights, should clear away the uncertainty over land tenure, and with that enable farming projects to be bankable.
This should find favour with A1, A2 and communal farmers and communities.
Long-term mortgage bonds, in return for a land tax to deter speculative land holding, would be necessary.
Legacy issues related to the compensation, and some re-accommodation of displaced white farmers should be on the agenda.
The current quantum of outputs from the entire hectarage appropriated by the Land Reform Programme, suggests the bulk of the land is idle.
Attracting foreign direct investment and upholding the rule of law Zimbabwe is rich in natural resources.
Laws have to be crafted to attract the funding and the expertise for resource extraction and beneficiation.
Other countries have managed to benefit from their minerals, so living examples are there to follow.
The current laws on indigenisation are doing the exact opposite.