Human security, ZDF blizzard: An encomium!

Sharon Hofisi Legal Letters
Imprinted in the mind of every security-conscious Zimbabwean who witnessed the events between November 13 and 21, 2017 pan out is the simple reality – the constitutional role of the security institutions – particularly ZDF has been memorialised for the present and future generations. As a lawyer and strategic studies expert, I have always loved emerging forms of security – human security included.

It must be stated at the very outset that ZDF’s timely intervention is not like a painful pinch which every Zimbabwean President should always seek to answer the attached question: What will the security institutions do to me today or tomorrow? In contradistinction, it is an answer to the perennial question: what is the constitutional role of security institutions when it comes to promoting human security?

November 13, 2017 is an award- winning book title which will always remind every Zimbabwean that human security needs a rapid and inclusive responsive approach to statecraft between the Government in power and the security institutions in a country. Any future President who ignores this simple truth does so at his own peril.

The United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security states that governments retain the primary role for ensuring the survival, livelihood and dignity of their populations. If they fail to do this, those institutions which are close to, and familiar with the realities on the ground, become important in building responses that are proactive, preventive and sustainable, and they should be assisted by the international community.

By the time ZDF occupied the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), every ordinary citizen had seen enough of problems which threatened human survival and human dignity. In that swift moment of military brilliance, where ZDF’s military concerns had been ignored and would have not been published and known to the general populace had it not been for the influence of social media, ZDF saw the need to have the country’s political terrain changed by every citizen.

General Chiwenga and his forces were ready to roll.
The ZANU-PF government under the leadership of former president Cde Mugabe had regarded ZDF’s security concerns as “treasonous”. In essence, their concerns were thrown into the political dustbin. But this was only for a night. ZDF was proactive, prevented a national conflict that bordered on tribal discontent, and wooed support from the international community for staging a peaceful military operation.

Because the Trust Fund considers the critical role that regional and sub-regional organisations play in mobilising support and advancing collective action, ZDF got legitimacy from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which emphasised the need not to threaten the constitutional order in Zimbabwe. To this extent, ZDF clearly indicated that it was not engaging in a coup. Subsequent negotiations between Cde Mugabe and the ZDF saw him admitting that the country was going through an economic crisis.

He ultimately resigned for “the good of the people” – itself a clear affirmation of the ZDF’s concerns on human security. Further, the Trust Fund also shows that the political, social, economic, environmental, military and cultural systems must together give people the building blocks for achieving peace, development and human progress. All these systems must be prevention-oriented by focusing on structural issues such as external and internal realities as well as behavioural changes.

ZDF focuses on the need for ZANU- PF to go through institutional checks but in a manner that did not lead to national crisis. The purges where party members were being dismissed en masse could have led to a national crisis because most of them were done on tribal or factional grounds. There is no doubt that ZANU-PF is the Government in power in Zimbabwe. The party events could also influence national events. As a result, the party crisis could also create a national crisis.

Human security demands that there be top-down norms, processes and institutions which provide early warning mechanisms, good governance, and social protection and enable the general populace to participate in the processes. There must be an improvement of local capacities, strengthening of social networks, and a coherent allocation of resources and policies.

With a situation of “party capture”, where the former president was being swayed in the direction of factional divisions, norms at party level were disregarded. For instance, former Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa was fired without being afforded the right to be heard. Cde Mugabe, as a lawyer, ought to have appreciated this time-honoured principle that a person accused of an offence must always be given the right to be heard, including giving written representations.

Cde Mnangagwa indicated this need in his presser which he gave after being fired. He also indicated this in his legal challenge which was decided in his favour moments before he was inaugurated as the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe. No wonder why Zimbabweans from across the political and social divides welcomed his appointment and even anticipate that he will deliver on his promises for a better Zimbabwe where “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.

The ZDF intervention indeed strengthened social networks in Zimbabwe. Political parties were urged to advise their supporters to treat themselves decorously. Social movements and ordinary citizens peacefully expressed their desire for a change by supporting the veterans of the liberation struggle, and marching against former president Cde Mugabe.

Rooted in the Constitution of Zimbabwe, 2013, and driven by the need to protect human security, the non-violent but asymmetrical character of ZDF’s intervention was exceptionally executed. Because the malcontents in ZANU-PF had distorted the security arrangements at State level, there was need for ZDF to distort its mode of operations.

Swiftly, strategic State institutions were targeted simply because the party in Government had refused to publish the concerns of a key institution in the security matrix.

The Herald and the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Service (ZBC), being State-run institutions, had to be the focus of the intervention. Those who read history can only equate this move to the storming of the Bastille in France, to symbolise the fall of monarchical absolutism.

Most importantly, ZDF’s intention was not to usurp power from Cde Mugabe through unconstitutional means. Rather, it was to remind him of the importance of effectively protecting human security for all Zimbabweans – arresting divisions based on tribal supremacy.

This security would cascade to key areas such as job and food security – something which President Mngangagwa has quickly come to understand and address in his broad security agenda. With the intervention, an era where the ordinary civil servants and the private business owners or investors would feel protected as envisaged by the Constitution were ended and saw thousands of Zimbabweans marching in solidarity with the ZDF in what became another independent day – November 18, 2017.

The date 18/11 in Zimbabwe became a day when the veterans of the struggle vigorously asserted their constitutional rights as they are enshrined in Section 84 of the Constitution.

Let it not be forgotten that their rights are also considered to be part of the founding values that are enshrined in Section 3 of the Constitution. The war veterans coloured everyone yellow on this memorable day – ZANU PF stalwarts whose contributions to the cause of ZANU-PF had been jettisoned; representatives of opposition political parties or alliances; social movements; ordinary citizens and so on.

A unique ZDF approach to military takeover and protection of national security is trending across the globe: a peaceful military intervention which served a nation from existential security threats from unaccountable State functionaries which called for some asymmetrical response.

The ZDF had to swiftly ensure that the internal party threats, morphing kaleidoscopically into a national crisis and throwing Zimbabwe into a polarised society of hate speech and insulting language, were dealt with once and for all.

Constitutionally speaking, ZDF are part of the security institutions that are listed in Section 207 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, 2013, hereinafter referred to as the Constitution. They have the normative jurisdiction to intervene in the internal affairs of Zimbabwe so long as they work in line with Section 208 of the Constitution.

This section obligates members of security institutions not to work in a partisan manner (they distanced themselves from this fact); not to prejudice the lawful interests of a political party or cause (they warned ZANU-PF to stop unlawful purges); not to further the interests of a political party or cause (they urged all political parties to unite); and not to violate fundamental human rights (they moved on to protect human security) – obviously the broad of rights that are protected in the Bill of Rights from Sections 44 to 87 of the Constitution.

ZANU-PF, as the party in Government in Zimbabwe, had to shape up in promoting human security in the interests of the nation at large. Tabyshalieva (2006) identifies human rights violations as one of the pernicious threats to human security. ZDF’s focus on human security is laudable because, employing Tabyshalieva’s language in this regard, ‘”all current studies on security have to integrate the human dimension of security”.

While military intervention is usually associated with the protection of national borders, the ZDF taught us crucial lessons on the significant role of security institutions in protecting human security.

The justification of the intervention is that human security is an emerging concept which needs rapid responsiveness. The United Nations’ Commission on Human Security locates human security as part of emerged concepts which, firstly, is a result of complexities and the interrelatedness of both old and new security threats which include sudden economic and financial downturns.

Because such threats tend to acquire transnational dimensions and move beyond traditional notions of security that focus on external military aggressions alone, ZDF becomes a crucial actor in promoting human security.

Secondly, human security is required as a comprehensive approach that utilises the wide range of new opportunities to tackle such threats in an integrated manner. This is why ZDF called for other security institutions to cooperate with it during the period where ZDF felt it important to weed out criminal elements around the former President of Zimbabwe, Cde Mugabe.

Most importantly, there was nothing amiss in having the military intervene in the manner it did. The United Nations approach is also based on the simple truth that threats to human security cannot be tackled through conventional mechanisms alone, but require a new consensus that acknowledges the linkages and interdependencies between development, human rights and national security.

Zimbabwe had become a nation where everyone had become a hopeless economist. Access to savings and income had become nightmarish. Informal moneychangers had invaded the streets of Zimbabwe. The promotion and respect of the right to personal security had gone down the drains. Ultimately, national security was highly threatened.

The intervention fits perfectly into the definition of the UN Commission on Human Security (CHS) which defines human security as meant “to protect the vital core of all human lives in ways that enhance human freedoms and human fulfilment”. The economic downturn meant that ordinary Zimbabweans did not enjoy the fruits of their hard labour – their salaries.

The ordinary Zimbabwean could not be protected from critical (severe) and pervasive (widespread) threats and situations. Cash shortages, long queues, low staff turnover, tax injustice and so on made life unbearable. CHS also describes the goal of human security as meant to create political, social, environmental, economic, military and cultural systems that together give people the building blocks of survival, livelihood and dignity.

This is what ZDF sought to achieve. No wonder why President Emmerson Mnangagwa emphasised in his acceptance speech as President that he focuses on improving the livelihoods of the people who must also access their incomes. His speech resonates well with the concerns that were raised by the ZDF.

Remarkably, ZDF’s intervention also fits into arguments by CHS which focus on the need to re-conceptualise security in three ways. Firstly, there is need to move away from traditional, state-centric conceptions of security that focused primarily on the safety of states from military aggression, to one that concentrates on the security of the individuals, their protection and empowerment.

From the perspective of traditional security, ZDF showed how it appreciates this form of security when it warned ZANU-PF that its party members were not supposed to denigrate it.

Such an approach is based on ZDF’s role in protecting national or State interests. However, those who were denigrating the military were motivated more by the need to protect their elitism than to protect the welfare of the suffering citizens. Ultimately, the average citizen was insecure; had no protection when his wares were confiscated, or when he was ruthlessly made to wake up on odd hours to go to the bank. He could not be empowered because a privileged few had wads of cash stashed in the comfort of their leafy suburbs.

Secondly, effective protection of human security enjoins governments to focus their attention to a multitude of threats that cut across different aspects of humanlife and thus highlighting the interface between security, development and human rights. Thirdly, there is need for states to promote a new integrated, coordinated and people-centred approach to advancing peace, security and development within the State.

In all this the key characteristics show that the approach should be: people-centered; multi-sector; comprehensive; context-specific; and prevention-oriented.

With Zimbabwe’s informal trade giving people a glimmer of hope, most Zimbabweans lived in persistent poverty because they could not enjoy their incomes. They did not have political security because there was repression with most of them arrested under criminal laws such as undermining the authority of the President.

They did not have health security because without access to their income, they were vulnerable to deadly infectious diseases, unsafe food, malnutrition and general lack of access to basic healthcare.