Mugabe doesn't know the State of the Nation

By Blessing Vava

Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe presented his first State Of The Nation Address since 2007, following massive job losses after a controversial Supreme Court ruling.

While following President Robert Mugabe’s 2015 State of the Nation Address on social media, each successive tweet and update was confirming my expectations; that there was nothing new the 91-year-old leader was going to say as a solution to Zimbabwe’s worsening economic crisis.

Plainly put, the address, which was the first of its nature in eight years, was not worth any hype as in the end, it was 35 minutes of nothing but hot air.

An opportunity

This is because my understanding of a SONA- which is made annually in other countries like South Africa- is that it is an opportunity for a president to give a genuine and honest report of the current political, socio-economic state of his nation.

It is a time when the president gives an update on the government programs- including achievements- and how the nation will be progressing from then on. In fact, it shapes the debate of the parliamentary session.

For the ordinary Zimbabwe who lost his or her job last month, or the vendor in Highfield, or my grandmother in rural Chipinge, all ears were on this address, waiting to hear what the President was to say on the state of affairs.

They wanted to hear if he had any solution to the economic situation that is spiralling out of control and has rendered over 20,000 people jobless in the past month alone.

Not going anywhere

For me, perhaps the only anticipation was to hear a major announcement of when he will be leaving office.

I say so because retiring is the only logical step for Mugabe as he has evidently failed to resuscitate our ailing economy.

The state of affairs in Zimbabwe right now can only be described as country in paralysis. And every citizen, including the leadership, seems clueless because the future is no longer predictable than before.

It has become so much unpredictable that any day any moment the boss will tell you that your services are no longer required.

Traumatic

It is just a traumatic experience. Thousands of Zimbabweans have been dismissed from work in a space of a month and more dismissals are coming.

However, Mugabe shortest speech while presenting SONA, equally shows that it was not even worth the wait, as Mugabe spent 35 minutes talking to himself.

His speech was hollow, and it just shows that Mugabe is completely out of touch with reality. Definitely the country has no leadership, no vision, and we are heading to a bottomless pit.

Everything that was said in his speech is basically a copy and paste from the last two decades.

We must be careful of the assumption that Mugabe had any ideas to begin with.

Denialist

The odds are high that the only real plan is to perpetuate the trough snuffling as long as possible - until Jesus returns or there about. ZANU PF is dominated by denialists like Mugabe, self-serving egomaniacs who masquerade as "revolutionaries" fighting to save the "masses", whose true freedom is permanently on hold while "leaders" fiercely compete on who can loot more from public coffers.

As I followed the tweets, he spoke of revitalising agriculture, value addition, we'll tackle corruption, grow SMEs, reduce corruption and on and on.

The bottom line is that this is just mere rhetoric, and he is doing very little to make sure it is actually implemented. The government will only do what suits them.

The president was also very quiet on poverty, inequality and failed to address the disaster that happened in Budiriro and many parts of Harare were citizens have been left homeless after their houses were destroyed by the authorities.

All these years the big Chefs who have been allocating people illegal land have been doing it under the blessing of this government.

Skating the issues

These are critical and urgent issues affecting our people, and we expected the President to say something about it. Instead, Mugabe was skating around the real issues, talking about a ten point plan whose origins no-one knows.

It is not surprising that, like ZIMASSET, the ten point plan will only remain on the mouths of government leaders and the state media.

The president told the nation that he has a plan for the diaspora, while forgetting that millions of Zimbabweans either fled from the economic or the political crisis authored by Mugabe himself.

An appeal

Mr President, we appeal to you to restore what you destroyed, and for sure all Zimbabweans in the diaspora will graciously come back home.

This is the same diaspora that was denied the right to vote by your government, and yet they are Zimbabweans. From the look of things more and more Zimbabweans are going to leave Zimbabwe for greener pastures.

As I conclude, I would say that Mugabe and ZANU PF have destroyed Zimbabwe in spectacular fashion. Those who cannot accept this reality are either possessed, or have had rose-tinted glasses surgically implanted.

Everything seems to revolve around self-enrichment, power and holding on by all means necessary. There is zero accountability and the so-called rulers are fleecing the poor.

Mr President, if you have any self-dignity after your SONA, then please gracefully walk away.

This article is an edited version, the original version is  on https://wazaonline.com/en/article/mugabe-doesnt-know-the-state-of-the-nation

Blessing Vava is a blogger who writes from Chipinge in Zimbabwe. He can be contacted on blessingvava@gmail.com. Twitter: @blevava

Time for Zim’s civil society to go back to the basics

 By Blessing Vava

The defeat of the opposition in the June 2013 elections was a huge setback in the struggle for democratic change in Zimbabwe.  The result not only left the opposition in disarray, but led to another split which saw the birth of the MDC Renewal to add on to the already many existing and yet ineffective divided opposition parties in Zimbabwe.  

Equally, the defeat of the opposition had a direct bearing on the operations of the civil society since many of these organisations have for long been fighting from the corner of the MDC-T.

 Over the years, the relationship of the opposition and that civil society has been that of a love and hate relationship.

Moreover the MDC was formed by civil society organisations and other social movements of that time who came together to mount political resistance to ZANU PF’s dictatorship. 

The struggle for a new people driven constitution became the epicentre of the mass mobilisation campaign that necessitated the formation of the MDC in 1999 to challenge political power in the upcoming elections of the year 2000.

 It was the resolve, volunteerism, selflessness determination, the united forces of students, the working class, the churches and other social movements who, despite the violent campaign by ZANU PF made significant strides in posing a serious challenge to the ZANU PF government.

However during the past decade the civil society has not been homogenous in its approach and operations, shifting positions, and at times going against declarations and ideological positions that compromised their existence.

In fact the civil society reneged from its primary and core business of bringing the government to account, rather went into the armpits of government.

The constitution making process is one livid example when Zimbabwe’s civil society went against their long held belief, which set minimum benchmarks on   the writing of the country’s supreme law.

It was agreed during the National Working Peoples Convention of 1999 that the writing of a new constitution should be democratic and people driven. However the first compromise was to support a politician driven constitution making process during the time of the Government of National Unity in 2009.

There are different explanations given by sides, those who supported and those who were opposed to the politician’s led constitution making process.

However I believe that the operating environment has totally changed as compared to the years preceding the 2013 election. Yes, the dynamics changed hence the need for new tactics, gone should be the days were the civil society goes into bed with political parties.

 There is no doubt that civil society at the moment is at its weakest, with donor fatigue, collapse of some organisations and fatigue amongst the membership and this is mainly attributed to the loss of the MDC. I argue that however there is greater need for self-introspection because  the current civil society has been dominated by elite cliques and cabals with very limited organic mass relationships.

 To put it candidly, I would say that the civil society of today should shy away from too many elite meetings that are disconnected with the people. The civil society in the past few years has been characterised by elite declarations and blueprints which have generally failed because they have no mass ownership.  There is greater need for a paradigm shift, move out of the comfort zone of issuing countless press statements and hosting press conferences while shying away from the grassroots.  

 History has taught us that powerful, social-political movements are a consequence of mass agitation and unless we resolve this conundrum we can continue launching as many blueprints but they are weak because they are not backed by popular legitimacy. The question has always been about popular legitimacy, without the masses, there is little that the civil society can do to influence any fundamental change in our society. It is the masses that drive the civil agenda not vice versa.

Therefore, the civil society has to go back to the basics, it can be done, and the No Vote in 2000 came as a result of mass mobilisation, the agitation, committment and selflessness.

The civil society should be guided by effective planning produced as a distillation of people's active participation - not just a donor funded plan of action shoved down people's throats. That has been one of the reasons of our failures. The masses will always defend the peoples manifesto and not some blue print authored by elites. Amilcar Cabral said hide nothing from the masses of our people, and we must not claim easy victories.

The revolutionary task ahead is enormous; there is need to consult residents about residents’ issues; workers about labour issues; women about women issues; farmers about farming issues; vendors about vendors’ issues. The intellectuals must be the guide and catalyst NOT the replacement of the people - organic agitation and exchanges lead to a popular movement which in the hour of need will defend its demands. The civil society should therefore continue holding government accountable and stop this business of going into bed with political parties.

NB: No part of this article may be used without prior permission from the author and please acknowledge the source.

Blessing Vava writes from Chipinge in Zimbabwe. He can be contacted on blessingvava@gmail.com

Zimbabwe job losses: Govt's crocodile tears

17 August 2015

 by Blessing  Vava

The Supreme Court in Zimbabwe in July this year ruled that employers have a right to terminate employment contracts by giving the requisite notice of intention to terminate employment.

 

Zimbabwe's judiciary system compromised

So far, Zimbabwe has recorded massive job losses with reports from labour unions estimating close to 20 000 workers fired from both private companies and a bigger number from parastatals.

Shifting blame

This has been happening in the wake of propaganda by the ZANU PF government, which strangely shifts the blame for the job losses to the country’s labour laws; particularly a ruling that has thrown the Zimbabwe’s workers in the streets.

This position is untenable.

The ruling party is now seeking to amend the country’s labour laws in a bid to ‘end’ these firings.

What hypocrisy? 

Colonial legislation

Quite telling though, is the hypocrisy shown by the ruling party. They blame the ruling on the flimsy pretext that it is a result of the colonial legislation that Zimbabwe adopted and never changed since the country gained its independence.

Shockingly, ZANU PF has exhibited serious levels of hypocrisy, acting as if they are concerned about the firing of workers, whereas the government- itself the biggest employer- has already started sending its employees home.

Parastatals are firing workers

To date, most parastatals including the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, Grain Marketing Board, ZIMPAPERS and the National Railways of Zimbabwe, have dismissed thousands of employees. The figures are set to rise as more employers take advantage of the relaxed labour regime.

The Supreme Court ruling has in a way confirmed the true colours of our government, which is now in an overdrive capitalist cycle. And Zimbabweans should brace for more tough times ahead as we have embraced another ESAP, albeit one,with more devastating effects than its World bank imposed predecessor.

In 1991, the state embraced the Economic and Structural Adjustment Program (ESAP), which advocated for tighter fiscal policy, reduction of public expenditure through faster privatization of parastatals, and civil service downsizing. This program left a majority of Zimbabweans jobless.

Policy inadequacy

The collapse of Zimbabwe’s economy originated from 'market fundamentalism', but the recent crisis has been due to a total collapse of the nationalist interventionist paradigm, itself a creature of the Third Chimurenga (the chaotic land reform) and ZIMASSET policies.

As if our government has not learned from history, they are still embracing free market, neo-liberal models that have failed in the past. We should not forget that the Minister of Finance, Mr Patrick Chinamasa, said government plans to cut the public sector wage bill to 40 percent of total revenue from the current 80 percent.

Planned

Therefore, the Supreme Court ruling is not surprising: it had been planned already. And it is clear that the Harare is succumbing to pressure from institutions like the IMF and World Bank, and of course the East, which are prescribing these austerity measures as pre-conditions for a financial bailout.

 It is shocking why the international community is quiet while all this is happening in Zimbabwe. Their only loud cries were when Cecil the Lion was killed. It boggles the mind.

It is obvious that ZANU PF is behind the Supreme Court ruling (never mind the interpretation of the law). They have a two thirds parliamentary majority, which enables them to change the laws.

Compromised judiciary

If they were truly against the ruling as they have been saying, the ruling would have been delayed, thus paving way for the proposed labour reforms they are making noise about.

I say so because the Judiciary itself is compromised. The Chief Justice, Godfrey Chidyausiku, is a former ZANU PF MP, and all the other Judges are appointed by the President. That’s where their allegiance lies, and not vice versa.

In the past, ZANU PF has used the judiciary to settle political scores, and no serious ruling is made without Mugabe’s approval. In Zimbabwe there is no rule of law, it is taboo to pass a judgement that is not preferred by the president. It can never happen.

Evidently, this hullabaloo about changing the labour laws is all hogwash, because the damage has already been done. And by the time the law is passed, only Mugabe and his cronies would still be employed by the state. 

Political expediency

Thus, in the case of Zimbabwe, institutions like the judiciary are being used to sustain the capitalist economy. And the state is also clearly serving the interests of capital.

As the government is complaining about over-expenditure, their levels of spending on the military are quite alarming, gobbling about $379 million allocated by Chinamasa during the budget presentation.

With the ongoing retrenchments, it is obvious that, despite the bloated manpower in our security forces, no single soldier or police man will be retrenched. They would rather keep them for political expediency as the anger towards the government is growing by the day.

This article is an edited version, the original version is  on Waza 

Blessing Vava is a blogger who writes from Chipinge in Zimbabwe. He can be contacted on blessingvava@gmail.com

WHAT IS TO BE DONE? A generational task for the Zimbabwean youth

By Blessing Vava

The election of Mmusi Maimane as the leader of South Africa’s biggest opposition party the Democratic Alliance (DA) was received with mixed feelings after his election as the first black leader, of the ‘assumedly’ white controlled party. Maimane’s election has been received with suspicion with the tag ‘puppet’ bracketed over him and that he has been put there to protect the interests of white monopoly capital.

Malema and Maimane leaders of South Africa's biggest opposition parties

However I would not want to waste time debating whether Maimane is a puppet, or that he has no history of the struggle as Jonathan Moyo labelled him, that is none of my business and a debate for another day.  My submission is that Maimane’s election to lead South Africa’s biggest opposition party at the age of 34 is not only historic but an inspiration to the youth in South Africa and the rest of the continent.

Indeed it is a feat that many of his young generation dream of and yet the chances are slim in a world where the youth have for too long been ignored in the affairs of their countries or simply given irrelevant roles.   Apart from Maimane, there is Julius Malema (33) also at the helm of the second biggest opposition party in South Africa the EFF.

There is no doubt that Malema and Maimane, will be at the centre of the youth vote in the 2016 elections, because of the growing calls for political and economic  regeneration by the youth of South Africa. The rise of Malema and Maimane is thus a confirmation that the young people are capable of self-determination and do not need someone to decide on their behalf (future). The more the youth get into these decisions making spaces, the more they influence in pushing for their interests.

We should not continue placing our hopes in the old guard who believe the youth are mere objects of violence and should be used for political terror activities.  Equally not that the old guard is still living in the mantra of the liberation struggle and to them national leadership is a preserve for those with a history of the liberation struggle. 

While we acknowledge the contributions made by the generation of the nationalist liberation leaders, it is not an excuse for failing to transform, adapt to the changing times and focus into the future. A reality that some leaders in ZANU PF are still failing to come to terms with. They are still obsessed with the past, they do believe that the young generation are robots who cannot think or lead. They need to acknowledge that each generation has its own mission. Waging a struggle against a racial oppressive system was no child’s play; it had to be done because that was their generational mission and we can’t continue living in the past.

For people like Jonathan Moyo they need to learn that leadership has nothing to do with the struggle credentials and sadly for his party they are still stuck with Mugabe because they have failed to establish a clear succession plan, with definite dates for their own political exit, moving aside for those behind to move ahead.

That’s the essence of democracy and regeneration of ideals.

The generation of the young people today must indeed discover its mission, it has to be organised. The liberation movements have failed to renew themselves, and it is evident that there is no space for the young people.  The disbanding of the ANC Youth league was mainly an issue of generational gap because of the old guard’s perpetual denial and failure to appreciate the aspirations of the young people.

The formation of the EFF, thus was a signal to the ANC that the young people do not need someone to decide on their future. And Malema and crew have clearly stated that theirs is a fight for economic freedom to fulfil the aspirations of the Freedom Charter.

While South Africa’s biggest opposition parties are being led persons under the age of 35 years, Zimbabwe’s political space is still closed for the young people. Recently a senior ZANU PF official Shuvai Mahofa openly confessed that ZANU PF is being run by old and uneducated people. She also called on the youth that if they wished to be leaders one day to remain faithful to the aged. REALLY?

But to still think that Zimbabwe still needs such type leaders is rather unfortunate and spells doom for the future of the country. Such utterances only proves that the liberation leadership is disconnect with the masses and hence a compelling new covenant with the electorate.

Mahofa-ZANU is being led by old and uneducated people

Therefore, 'generational mandate' has to be seen as a logical process of not betraying the decolonisation project but taking it to the next phase where democracy and creation of opportunities has to be entrenched and enjoyed by the masses of our people. That generational mandate necessarily means liberating the state from being captured by a rapaciously consumptive elite which is largely unaccountable, unresponsive to the people's demands and only interested in reproducing itself as an extracting class. 

WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

The youth have to ask themselves these questions, are they content with being led by old people who are out of touch with our aspirations?

Are they afraid to take risks and challenge those in power? Why are they not mobilising themselves as a generation to fulfil the mission?

The task at hand is generational change. In so doing, there is need to take giant leaps and decisive action without shifting goal posts, it is clear that as a generation, our mission is not yet complete.

Where are we coming from?

The young people who participated at the National Peoples Convention on the 8^th of February 2008 in Harare made this declaration in the Peoples Charter:

7. Believing that at all given times the youth, both female and male, represent the present and the future of our country and that all those in positions of leadership nationally and locally must remain true to the fact that our country shall be passed on from one generation to the next, The People state that, in order for each generation to bequeath to the next a country that remains the epitome of hope, democracy and sustainable livelihoods, the following principles for the youth must be adhered to and respected:

a) The youth shall be guaranteed the right to education at all levels until they acquire their first tertiary qualification.

b) The youth shall be guaranteed an equal voice in decision-making processes that not only affect them but the country as a whole in all spheres of politics, the national economy and social welfare.

c) The youth shall be guaranteed access to the right to health.

d) The youth shall not be subject to political abuse through training regimes that connote political violence or any semblance of propaganda that will compromise their right to determine their future as both individuals and as a collective.

e) The youth have the right to associate and assemble and express themselves freely of their own prerogative.

For these principles to be realised there is need to take decisive programmes of action to change our society for the better for generations to come. The emphasis however should be centred on the strong conviction that the young people should be mobilised to play a developmental role in the democratic struggle. The only political solution will be a youthful political alternative whose agenda will be a revolutionary transformation of society based on a combination of ideological clarity and determination. It is equally important to train and invest in young leaders, who have the ability to construct and realize a forward-looking vision for our country and the continent at large.

Blessing Vuvuzela Vava is a Defender of the Peoples Charter. He writes from Chipinge and can be contacted on blessingvava@gmail.com. He writes in his personal capacity.

Afrobarometer survey-an opportunity to redefine the struggle

By Blessing Vava

The Afrobarometer/ Mass Public Opinion Institute of Zimbabwe report has sent tongues wagging and received with mixed feelings locally and abroad. 

The survey, found that Mugabe enjoys greater support in the rural areas where 70 percent trust him while he only enjoys 45 percent trust of the urban people has left many in disbelief in that despite his age Mugabe enjoys more trust than any other politician in the land.

For the opposition, obviously they are still failing to come to terms with the survey, which also found out that the opposition parties were the least supported institutions, trusted by only 34 percent of Zimbabweans.

Some have dismissed the survey as ‘dogded’, ‘rigged’, ‘nikuved’ and all sorts of dismissive terms.

However we all know for a fact that such allusions have become synonymous with the opposition since time immemorial. In 2013, they dismissed the Susan Booysen (they actually rejected two surveys: the Freedom House one done by Booysen, another internal one done by MDC IRI and also one from Afrobarometer ).  Most of the findings from these  surveys mirrored the results of the the June 2013 elections.

I think dismissing  such  surveys is not only dangerous but disastrous and rather they should help in  developing political strategies based on the worst case scenarios otherwise we would be failing to appreciate and taking into cognisant that surveys constitute free political consultancy.

The broad democratic movement (workers, civil society etc. ) must ask hard questions why Mugabe is popular in the rural areas where there is rampant violence at the time of elections? Is it because the ‘urban based’ movements for democracy have themselves not had a deep understanding of the actual prevailing political economy which includes swathes of ‘rural poverty’?

Hence any serious political outfit should take such findings seriously without necessarily being dismissive and emotive.

On the opposition being least trusted, I think it might be as a result that the MDC is steeped in the same political culture of intolerance violence corruption selfishness and private accumulation (‘personalisation’ of the struggle has become a cocktail for disaster’  .

However the contributions made by the MDC towards some incremental reforms over the past 15 years cannot be ignored but sadly the splits have left the party thin. To be frank at the present moment the political future of opposition politics is in intensive care unit and it needs urgent and practical solutions the results of the survey points to that.  

For me, I think most Zimbabweans have lost faith in the existing opposition parties and I posit that Zimbabwe now needs new strategies, ‘new’ ideas and thinking which will drive the next revolution.

I am not in any way obsessed with attacking the MDCT and neither do I sympathise with ZANU PF, but the fact of the matter is that the people of Zimbabwe are now tired of the opposition because of its failure to remove Mugabe from power.

Many others are no longer participating in elections because elections  have failed to bring about the change we are yearning for. The spirit of change is slowly dying down, those who have been been claiming to be leading the 'struggle' have failed to bring hope and inspire the masses. The faces have remained the same, strategies have not changed and this is an opportunity for this generation to define a new narrative.  

As proponents of democracy, we should at all times be able to  carry the obligation to tell the truth, claim no easy victories and take the masses with us on everything we do and say. Without telling the truth is not only counter-revolutionary, but a recipe for disaster which will lead us to a bottomless pit.  

It is important to note that political activity in the world is a result of conscious human action, not a supernatural phenomenon there is need for massive groundwork and mobilisation to re-energise the masses in the struggle for a social democratic state.

The MDC is not the Alpha and Omega of Zimbabwe's revolutionary politics. Many major political events have transpired in Zimbabwe without the involvement of the MDC, and to think that it is only the MDC that will carry the struggle forward is not only myopic but foolishness of the highest magnitude. Already Zimbabwe made a huge blunder and set a wrong precedence in portraying an incapable ZANU PF and lately the opposition that it cannot outgrow its individual leaders. This is an unfortunate part of our politics where it happens that both sides of political options are disastrous, thus the call for a new alternative to drive the democratic struggle.

Our greatest challenge as a born free generation is accepting the false illusion insinuations that Morgan Tsvangirai is the ‘face of the struggle’ and that Mugabe is a ‘champion of revolutionary politics’ while failing to appreciate that the struggle and politics should outgrow individuals.

There is no doubt that the environment is now ripe for a post-colonial, post-liberation, post-nationalist movement which places the people at the centre of power, participation, opportunities and material improvement?

Our rallying point is the Peoples Charter, a document of the people of Zimbabwe, hoisted by civil society and pro-democratic formations as the torchbearer that should lead Zimbabwe to total political, social and economic emancipation of all citizens. The Peoples Charter is therefore an expression of the social, political and economic will of Zimbabweans.

Blessing ‘Vuvuzela’ Vava is a defender of the Peoples Charter. He writes from Chipinge and can be contacted on blessingvava@gmail.com. Views expressed in this article are personal.