Without order, it is impossible to have good governance

sequence, pattern, or method.
Governance is about the rules and practices that govern these relationships. Accordingly, the quality of governance has a direct link to orderliness in sequences, patterns and methodologies of relations in a system.
In other words, effectiveness of rules and practices can only be as good as prevailing organisational systems. Focus of good governance should therefore be on creation of a rhythm of confidence and trust in one another, as well as in systems, be it in corporate, local or national governance.
Best example of sureness and such rhythms is experienced by all in the daily rising of the sun and in its setting.
Creation of the earth and all that is in it as recorded in the Bible, was sequenced over six days, and the Maker then rested on the seventh day. This pattern became the standard upon which even present day work tempo is based.
Labour laws and regulations are based on this pattern of working six days and resting on the seventh, for most labour intensive jobs. The orderliness and patterns of God’s creation in mammals, the earth with its mountains, oceans and land has enabled the world today to study and document sciences.
Order brings clarity, consistence and continuity. Simple sureness of order causes people to participate and respect rules and practices.
For instance, force of gravity applies to all, big and small, people in the North, South, and East or West, it applies to animals as well as vegetation. As a result, it is impossible to see human beings fly at an altitude of 1 000 feet like a bird, let alone cruise at 34 000 feet like an airplane, unless they are on board. This is the overall aim of good governance, to ensure that rules, principles and practices are clear and applied consistently as well as to ensure that as many citizens as possible participate and respect these rules.
The unfairness and inconsistent applications of laws, rules, regulations and practices during the colonial era in Africa, brought about such chaos, as to cause thousands of young boys and girls to leave school and join the liberation struggle, in the case of Zimbabwe, solely to resist an unjust governance system.
Thousands of our educated Black elite during the 1960s shunned comfortable jobs and homes in exchange for prison cells, some of which have now become tourist attractions, as in the case of the Roben Island.
Thus order cannot be attained just for the sake of law maintenance, but rather to raise the standard of governance to a level where more and more citizens participate and respect systems.
The case of vendors and the City of Harare is a relevant example of chaos, coming out of governance systems lacking enforceability.
The prevalence of street vendors almost everywhere in the city centre has become an eyesore and health hazard. There are by-laws which I believe are very clear, but due to weak enforcement, no one seems to respect these laws.
Recently, Percy Toriro, an urban planner, put it very clearly on ZBC News when he identified poverty as a factor in this chaos. He mentioned the need for all stakeholders to come together and raise awareness on not just illegality of selling wares in undesignated areas, but also the need to restore order in the city centre while at the same time addressing poverty issues, which are driving these men and women to sell just about anything, anywhere.
In the words of Hernando de Soto, the Peruvian economist who analysed causes of poverty in his book “The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else”, it is said that poor countries are poor not because they lack resources or aid from rich countries, or FDI by multinational firms but because their governance systems are so poor that they lack enforceability of contracts.
Consequently they develop extra legal economies ruled by slum lords, mafia and muscle men.
These poor countries can be rich if they can unlock their trapped assets. He goes on to say that excessive regulations make the situation even worse because of the opaqueness of the system to anyone other than an insider. De Soto argues that his country, Peru, at one stage had more than 28 000 legislations per year at the rate of more than 100 per day. No one can keep pace with that rate of change. As a result corruption is prevalent at all levels.
Cindy Trim, in her book “Commanding Your Morning” refers to order as a condition in which freedom from disorder or disruption is maintained through structures, systems, and protocol.
She goes on to say that where there is lack of order, rank, or command chain, whenever protocol is not present or whenever a code of conduct is not perceived or understood, it brings about emptiness, lack of purpose and meaning.
Lack of order is characterised by lack of direction, meaning, or insight. Corruption that is evil and disliked by most of us is a product of disorder and darkness, the absence of light.
This absence of light is described in the book of Job 10:22 where it is written, “A land as dark as darkness itself, as the shadow of death without any order, where even the light is like darkness”.
Such is the darkness that comes out of lack of orderliness, where even good laws and practices are just as other forms of confusion and darkness.
Lack of order cannot just be wished away, it has to be deliberately reversed through continual efforts starting of course in the mind.
This is why Toriro emphasised the need to raise awareness of good orderliness in Harare.
It has to be remembered that there is a generation in Zimbabwe that was lost to the confusion, lack of direction, meaning and insight, which characterised the socio-economic decline during the first 10 years of this new millennium.
This generation was never taught about orderliness at home or in schools. This is the generation raised in child-headed families after losing both parents to HIV/AIDS. This is the generation which lost mothers to the Diaspora. This is the generation which could not afford school fees, and sometimes would be excluded from school for a long time.
This generation missed out on what previous generations regarded as basics such as time management, respect for authority, personal hygiene etc.
Now we want this lost generation to participate in all developmental issues without preparing or training them? Awareness training on the need for orderliness is important not just in the case of vendors and City of Harare, but indeed for the entire country and across all socio-economic development areas.
If the aim of good governance is to include more and more citizens to participate in political or democratic, economic or corporate governance, then more and more citizens should be trained to create and respect order.
There should be a deliberate creation of a rhythm of respect for authority, integrity, consistency, clarity etc.
Unless time and energy are intentionally harnessed and channelled towards creating order, then the law of entropy, which Trimm refers to as the tendency of energy to wonder off and go from a state of order to one of disorder, will take over.
As one colleague puts it, governance is time sensitive and so it requires sensitivity and quick responses to issues as they arise.