By Blessing Vava
Zimbabwe’s
quest for a new path under the auspices of the new dispensation and reengagement
by Mnangagwa has vapoured into thin air faster than anyone could have imagined
as the country is back again under the international spotlight. The November
2017 Euphoria has fast fizzled to Armageddonian despair.
Mnangagwa’s
reckless and divisive utterances during the Mwenezi rally held over the weekend,
where he openly issued threats targeted at human rights lawyers and doctors
should leave any peace loving and citizens in general with opposing views worried.
Mnagagwa said: “They told them that if anyone gets arrested, they should go to a
certain place, there are lawyers waiting to defend them “If anyone gets hurt,
they should go to a certain place, there are doctors waiting to treat them. “We
are now going after those doctors who were involved in those activities. “Those
lawyers that were inciting violence, we are now going after them. So those who
choose violence, we are prepared.”
It raises
the fears that Zimbabwe has quickly slided back into that era of gross human
rights abuses, disappearance of people whose views are seen as politically
incorrect, illegal policing of fellow citizens by violent party activists
instead, one party state kind of situation, forced migration and displacement
of opposition leaders and supporters.
After
a spirited and yet deceitful campaign portraying himself as a reformist, Mnangagwa
had indeed managed to deceive Zimbabweans and the international community. But like
the proverbial leopard that doesn’t change its spots, Mnangagwa has exposed his
true colours.
Since
the November military coup in 2017, Mnangagwa
has been trying so hard to portray the ‘good boy’ image, that of a reformer who is determined to drive
Zimbabwe to the promised land of milk and honey. That approach was beginning to
bear fruits with appearances at Davos and at least ‘favourable’ coverage from some once hostile
international media outlets.
Mugabe’s 37 years iron fist rule reduced a once beautiful
nation into a pariah state with alarming human rights abuses, bad governance, a
disappearance of the rule of law and rampant corruption by political elites.
From where we stand, today, Zimbabwe finds herself, once again in a
precarious situation with Mnangagwa’s rule under serious scrutiny, both locally
and internationally as he seems to have failed to resist dipping from book of
rules he and other leaders co-authored with Mugabe. The recent events in the Southern African
country paint a gloomy picture, dashing
hopes for a new dispensation and a different path that departs from Mugabe’s pariah
days.
I
argue that Mnangagwa missed, rather a number of ‘golden opportunities’ to
redeem himself from his horrendous past in Zimbabwe’s darkest history. The man
simply failed the test, here is why?
Firstly,
after removing Mugabe through a military coup, Mnangagwa had an opportunity of
emerging as a responsible leader ,’ to unite a divided underachieving
impoverished nation that had been polarised by hate politics, violence and
intolerance by Mugabe. In my opinion, Mnangagwa’s first port of call should
have been to call for an all-inclusive national dialogue that would initiate discussions on the country’s polarised political
environment, the economy, national peace and reconciliation programme, and
re-engagements efforts after the pariah years of Mugabe’s misrule. The national
dialogue process’ thrust was to discuss
and lay out transitional mechanisms whose sole purpose was to deal with
electoral reforms with particular time-frames leading to a national election.
Secondly, just a day after the election was conducted and
before the release of results of a generally peaceful election were announced
Mnangagwa, squandered another opportunity by unleashing soldiers on the streets
of Harare resulting in the deaths of 6 innocent civilians. Even with a simmering
dispute around the results, most observer missions, particularly the African
brothers were preparing to turn a blind eye on the chicanery around the results
and endorse the election. However as the African brothers were still chuckling
behind the scenes the demon in him (Mnangagwa) suddenly flared up and he deployed
the army to kill innocent civilians who were protesting on the streets of
Harare. With a likely endorsement from
his erstwhile African brothers, there was really no need for Mnangagwa to
deploy the army as this exposed him and put his leadership under the spotlight.
The 1st of August protest should have been dealt with differently. I
argued during that time, Mnangagwa had
literally gotten away with murder (rigging) had he not unleashed trigger happy soldiers who spoiled the party for him by
killing civilians.
As
the shootings happened, Mnangagwa did not come out in the open to take responsibility
that he had indeed deployed the army leaving many to speculate that it was his
deputy Chiwenga. It did not end there, Mnangagwa proceeded to appoint a
commission of inquiry led by former South African president, Kgalema Mothlante.
I argue that there was insincerity around the setting up of the commission. If the truth be told, the setting up of the
commission was meant to be a Public Relations (PR) exercise to ‘please’ the
international community, in particular the British and Westerners.
Equally,
the commission’s terms of reference were quite clear that it appeared a witch
hunting exercise to blame the MDC Alliance for having caused the chaos. This
then brings me to my third point, of yet another missed opportunity by
Mnangagwa, in that in the first instance he should have “consulted” all the
stakeholders on the composition and
terms of reference for the commission. Rather than the backlash he got after
appointing some individuals with questionable backgrounds to be part of the
commission.
Consequently,
despite the controversies around the composition of the commissioners,
the commission’s recommendations also presented an (fourth) opportunity around implementation.
In hindsight the fact that the recommendations are still to be implemented and
there seems to be no desire to do so. This, raises fears that it was just a
window dressing exercise and this has come out clearly from his utterances in
Mwenezi.
Despite,
Mnangagwa’s outright denial that he deployed soldiers on the 1st of
August 2018 and blaming the opposition for causing the violence that happened
during the shut-down in January 2019, his shocking utterances in Mwenezi and
his interview on France 24 have
exposed him as the architect of the whole saga. Mnangagwa boasted: “We should be on the lookout as our enemies are not resting, but ensure
our eyes are always wide open. We will crush our enemies, and they are being
crushed.” It is now quite evident, beyond any figment of doubt that he was well aware of the goings on and
all this is part of a wider crackdown on the main opposition, the MDC Alliance
and the civil society. To sum it all, the unfolding events in Zimbabwe show
that ZANU PF is in now back to its default mode
of violence.
Essentially,
the utterances by Mnangagwa in Mwenezi are a declaration that, firstly ZANU PF
is politicking about the new dispensation, secondly they are not prepared for
any reforms before the next election, thirdly
there is going to be more clampdown on activists, with raids on CSOs, fourthly rural areas are once again declared
no go areas for the main opposition and civil society. In light of these, I
also wish to highlight that the proposed meeting by the First Lady Auxillia
Mnangagwa to meet with the wives of traditional leaders, is worrisome as it might
be part of a broader strategy by ZANU PF
to close the rural areas in preparation for the next election in 2023.
Therefore,
as this is happening, Zimbabweans should not look for any miracle in the revival of the economy. The
structural economic implications of the
Mnangagwa administration are dire; there is no hope. The levels of poverty in
Zimbabwe will worsen, income has been eroded, inflation is galloping out of
control, industrial productivity is
slowing down (Miners scaling down), prices are off into the sky, investors are
giving Zimbabwe a wide berth and yet the party state has increased extractive
taxes. Notwithstanding Zimbabwe's political elites getting 'solidarity' from
the region the contemporary complex concoction of widening factional fights in
the political elite ranks; the widespread political polarity and the on setting
economic meltdown will slowly but surely blow Zimbabwe into another vortex of
poverty, disease and political conflict.
In
conclusion, I argue that by inciting violence, the outcomes so far cement Mnangagwa’s
continued trajectory on Mugabe’s type of
politics of a vampire state. The vampire state entails the Mugabe style of
politics: of criminalising some fellow citizens; degrees in violence; plunder
of national assets; anti-west rhetoric; nationalistic-military authoritarianism;
endless foreign trips to despotic nations, like Russia, Belarus and China in
search of elusive alternative capital; and finally living in opulence and
extravagancy whilst the nation wallows in disasters and poverty. In essence,
Mnangagwa is aligning his regime with
the eastern bloc mainly to achieve, one key objective; to seek sanctuary from
the likely censure from the West, given his now resort to dictatorship, as
warned by his spokesperson, George Charamba, that the January 2019 military
crackdown was a “ foretaste of things to come”. It’s back to Armageddon!
Blessing Vava is based in Shashekwa
village, Chipinge. He can be contacted on blessingvava@gmail.com,
Twitter: @blevava
