adminrecently concluded African Union (AU) meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The civic group sent a powerful and yet ideologically neutered delegation to the Addis Ababa meeting to try and cajole the African leaders into placing Zimbabwe on the agenda of its just ended meeting.
By hook or crook, the civil society mercenaries wanted to unjustifiably smuggle the innocuous Zimbabwean issue into the summit’s discourse. They had envisaged a situation where they will arm-twist the African leaders into coming up with a resolution that will frog march Zimbabweans into instituting some electoral and constitutional reforms. To a continent congenitally saddled with serious humanitarian crises like the famine in Somalia and the suicidal religious clashes in Nigeria, the demands by the Zimbabwean civic organisation were merely child’s play.
It is really unthinkable why the civic group would mislead itself to believe that African leaders whose plate was not only full but overflowing with a cornucopia of volatile situations erupting all over the continent, would spare a moment to deal with such a comparatively routine implementation of reforms in a member state.
Seriously, which AU member state does not have outstanding reforms to implement in its country? Examples abound of countries that are presently struggling to implement administrative reforms tailor made to resolve their nation-specific challenges. Right now the northern and southern Sudanese are seized with elusive efforts to negotiate reforms that would enable them to proportionately share proceeds from their oil exports.
In Nigeria, the people are grappling with efforts to map out reforms that would ensure that executive power in the country is fairly rotated between the Muslim North and Christian South so as to stave off destabilising activities by fundamentalist groups such as Boko Haram. In the aftermath of recent political upheavals in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, the people there are severally engaged in efforts to hammer out constitutional reforms that would suit their newly found political dispensations.
Similarly, in the wake of the unceremonious withdrawal of financial aid by the insincere western donors, Malawians are understandably gleaning for self sustaining reforms that would offer them leeway to independently fund their economy.
Our neighbour, South Africa, is currently immersed in research to identify appropriate reform measures to address the overly skewed distribution of resources spawned by the repulsive apartheid regime, with some fearless people like Julius Malema proposing for the nationalisation of all the resources.
Deductively, all countries in the continent are at different levels of continually implementing reforms that will usher in peace, development and prosperity for their respective people. In this sense, it can therefore be argued that there is nothing outlandish about Zimbabwe’s impending reforms to deserve a hearing at the AU meeting.
As expected, all the continental leaders refused to give audience to the nauseous civic society mercenaries from Zimbabwe. The inescapable lesson that can be drawn from this misadventure is that civic groups should not over-blow our local challenges since all countries are seized with comparatively similar challenges.
The problem with these pro-western groups is that they rush to consult foreigners without consulting local people first. It would be wise for them to draw lessons from some truly indigenous organisations like the Affirmative Action Group (AAG), who constantly engage the people of Zimbabwe on matters affecting them. The AAG recently launched its Buhera Chapter in Manicaland. In a way, they have opened up an avenue for constantly engaging with the villagers and tap into the wisdom of the traditional leaders.
When Upfumi Kuvadiki, another local civic group, had a stone to grind with the Harare Municipality over the Easipark deal, they never appealed to the AU but formally engaged the relevant council authorities to convey their disgruntlement. As such, we urge all foreign bound civic groups to first engage local authorities and local people first before booking for tickets to their frequent foreign sojourns.
All civic groups should awaken to the brute reality that it is the people in the grassroots who wield the power to chart the destiny of this country. Unlike the elitist civic organisation that routinely rushes to foreign capitals for advice, truly indigenous civic groups, through their local chapters, constantly engage the ordinary people to determine the way forward for the country. These elitist civic groups are oblivious of the fact that it is the people of Zimbabwe who wield the inviolable jurisdiction to determine the course of events in this country.
No foreigner has any tinge of influence over our internal matters. We will not brook any foreign interference save for the Sadc facilitation to which we have strategically acquiesced to for our own good.
l Tendai Moyo is a Harare based social commentator
Online Reporter