adminPerspective Stephen Mpofu
The Holy Bible says it all: “No two persons can walk together unless they are agreed.” Contextually, in Zimbabwe, Zanu-PF on the one hand, and rival political parties on the other if regarded as two persons, could only walk together in the Government of National Unity, or Inclusive Government – a journey of believers and non-believers in the Zimbabwean revolution – as far as was necessary because the two could not share the revolutionary ideology that secured this country from oppressive, white colonial rule.
On the other hand, the Patriotic Front of Zapu and Zanu agreed the revolutionary path, one walking the western stretch from Zambia and the other the eastern stretch from bases in Mozambique with Zimbabwe’s independence in April 1980 as a point of rendezvous for both of them to govern the country as one united party right up to the time of the GNU in 2008.
The long run-up to the harmonised elections on 31 July was replete with contradictions. Some parties campaigned for devolution of power which was, in effect a euphemism for creating a tribal fiefdom through secession from the nation state of Zimbabwe, or strove to placate imperialists who bankrolled them so these might prolong their support secretly if necessary or some of their people resorted to carnal pursuits indulging in a politically fatalistic study of the chemistry of skirts instead of studying the social and political dynamics of the country and the chemistry of political players.
Thus, it was only natural that the electorate again gave the revolutionary party the mandate to lead this country for the next five years, and the policies crafted by Zanu-PF in harmony with its election manifesto demonstrate that the ruling party is familiar with ways into the hearts and minds of the Zimbabwean people.
On the other hand, the failure of other political parties to produce and implement policies popular with the masses must have tied nooses around the future of their leaders, making them synonymous with smoking wicks – at least for the time being.
Moreover, Zanu-PF’s return to power with such a big bang and coming up with a bold economic recovery blueprint – the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation – so soon after the election surely raises hopes of a better Zimbabwe if those charged with implementing Zim Asset work really hard to make good promises to the people of this country made in the electoral manifesto of Zanu-PF.
Indeed, if political parties that fell in the polls ignore a rather impassioned call by the secretary general of Professor Welshman Ncube’s MDC to let bygones be bygones and join Zanu-PF in the country’s social and economic reconstruction process, they might squander all chances of ever taking turns with Zanu-PF in ruling this country in the full maturation of Zimbabwe’s political system.
At the same time, the ruling party should be warned to remain vigilant to prevent Trojan horses embedding themselves in government structures by appearing to have repented from criticising and working against the ruling party as secret agents of imperialists.
There is no way such people, who may have even abandoned their country when the times were really hard but returned to savour the sweat of loyals who stuck with the motherland in difficult times and a potentially succulent future, should be expected to have undergone a political metamorphosis overnight as born-again comrades in the struggle to make Zimbabwe a most exciting country in which to belong on the African landmass.
To be sure such fifth columnists are likely to continue to play the game they know only too well – running with the hares and hunting with the hounds.
If the maggots are not exposed and given their just deserts, they will eat into the country’s body politic, suck out the marrow and weaken Zanu-PF with a disastrous outcome in the 2018 general election.
That said, however, the way that the revolutionary party has charted into the future seems excitingly enough to illuminate the opaque future by dealing with things that contradict with the revolution, such as a bamba zonke behaviour in land reforms, for instance.
That the Government will now act to prevent ownership of two farms by one person is not only plausible, it is also a move long overdue.
The practice of multiple farm ownership is contrary to the ethos of the revolution as the practice creates a society or sections of haves and have nots in a society with corresponding swollen bellies and shrunken bellies. The latter are wont to be hungry and angry people who pose a serious danger to peace and stability in a country and should therefore not be allowed to exist and subvert peace and harmony in the country.
Corruption is another serious ill that needs immediate cure if a development initiative with direct foreign investment as a fillip is to accomplish desired goals in revamping social and economic development for the good of all.
Complaints heard from authorities of late suggest that some people in the frontline of foreign investment into the country have porous hands that prevent money getting into the right places where it is intended, or that they discourage investors by demanding backhanders, thereby depriving the country of much-needed financial inflows from abroad to revive ailing industries, for instance, or through partnerships between foreign and local companies, private or state-owned.
Officers who cannot be trusted as faithful and patriotic representatives of the state are weeds that must be pulled out of the system of government as they are an abomination, to say the least.
Foreign investment is key to development in any country with partnerships between foreign and local companies – private or government-owned – can make wonders in helping development in a country. For instance, a vertical transfer of technology along with skilled personnel from a well-developed foreign partner will drastically enhance the performance of the local partner, with security of investment guaranteed especially if the local company in the partnership is state-owned.
Foreign investment is particularly critical for Zimbabwe at this time when the manufacturing industries in previously the country’s hub in Bulawayo, for instance, have been reduced to a sorry state by illegal western sanctions that have devoured jobs for workers who have been reduced to virtual beggars with little or nothing left on the dinner table for their families.
Then there is the emphasis on irrigation in light of global warming and climate change which have seriously disarrayed rainfall patterns in parts of the country where villagers now hold the begging bowl – but thanks to government’s intervention with food aid.
If more water is conserved in dams people will avert hunger by growing food all-year-round, thereby keeping away as much as possible food aid from western imperialist countries that often, if not always, attach political strings to the assistance given and intended to rope in recipient countries as political slaves.
Then there is, of course, now a more cautious approach to indigenisation with banks being spared.
What remains is for the Zim Asset to be scrupulously supervised and monitored to achieve all the set goals, with as much as possible money earned from Zimbabwe’s rich mineral resources being ploughed in to support the social and economic and development programme in which the hopes of all Zimbabweans are now pinned.
Our people are embarked on a do-or-die survival programme – which will succeed if Zimbabweans put God in the forefront of all their initiatives. For the Bible says if God is for the people nothing can succeed against such a people.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter