By Simba Mukori & Stephen Sarkozy Chuma
The land of our nativity, beloved motherland Zimbabwe, is currently gripped by an infectious sense of political excitement that is unmistakable as the prevailing mood of the times across the national political terrain. One would be forgiven to think that its time for national general election! Nay! It is congress time for the most popular political party ever, the Movement for Democratic Change led by the equally popular and people-centered President Advocate Nelson Chamisa.
Embodied in views he has often times expressed at various occasions for all and sundry to hear, President Chamisa has made it abundantly clear that this congress is not so much about jostling for positions but most importantly about propositional value, generational renewal and ideological groundedness. Through this irrefutably democratic process of mandate-seeking by office aspirants in the Party as given and guided by the party’s constitution,the movement is rebranding and rejuvenating itself for the final lethal onslaught against ruling kleptocrats who have held the nation hostage for the past 39 years. Our quest in pursuit of reclaiming our stolen vote remain supreme until victory is realised!
However,it is illustrative to note that this congress is taking place at a historical juncture when the country is embroiled in a multifaceted crisis of unprecedented proportions. The economy is in doldrums. Unemployment has plummeted to catastrophic levels. The food security situation is bleak and the broad mass of the population is susceptible to diseases that are curable and preventable due to the collapse of the healthcare system. The general cost of living has skyrocketed to astronomic heights as incomes continue to be eroded by inflationary pressures.
Admittedly, the ZANU PF ruling cabal has proven to be a dysfunctional vehicle for translating political independence into economic freedom for the generality of the populace. It is for this reason that the MDC was formed – to retire the old liberation movement that has failed to transform itself into a national people’s development project.
Since 1999 when the MDC burst on the national political scene, the inexorable march towards the removal and ultimate liquidation of ZANU PF has been pursued relentlessly but remains elusive to this day. The question therefore that must preoccupy the minds of all progressive social democrats as we inch closer to the grand finale of our Congress on the 24-26th of May 2019 is why is it taking long and how can we quicken the overthrow of this monstrous dictatorship from power in a peaceful and democratic manner. Such an interrogation of our present predicament is not only necessary but also urgent.
Besides being a broad arena for political contestation in pursuit of positions of power, congress should also be used as a podium for propositions,introspection and comradely cross-pollination of ideas on crafting a counter hegemonic way forward. It is in this vein that we take it upon ourselves to start a discussion investigating the nature of the monster we are confronted with in Zimbabwe. Ladies and gentlemen,before us is a competitive authoritarian regime..a partocratic system that needs to be dismantled!
We summon and enlist the scholarly views of Steven Levitsky and Lucan A Way, respected professors of political science at Harvard University, to help explain the phenomenon of competitive authoritarian regimes.
“A competitive authoritarian regime is a civilian regime in which formal democratic institutions exist and are widely viewed as the primary means of gaining power but in which the ruling incumbents abuse of the state places them at a significant advantage against their opponents. In most cases elections are held regularly and normally deemed free, credible and there is reasonable competition but there is no fairness and the playing field is very uneven. Freedom of expression, association, assembly, speech and conscience is respected limited arbitrarily using legal sanctions. Executive authority and power is deemed to derive from the people. The constitution is considered the supreme law of the land and the country – a constitutional democracy. Independent institutions are put in place but are captured and staffed by the incumbent’s loyalists who pander to the whims of their patron. State institutions are manipulated to the advantage of the incumbent. Courts,commissions even state-owned enterprises are used to prop up the incumbent’s bid, covertly.”
In competitive authoritarian regimes, unfair media access, use of discretionary economic power and abuse of state resources and legal repression is deployed to favour the incumbent at the expense of opponents. In most cases,elections are used as mere facades and smokescreens for democracy in order to gain legitimacy in pursuit of regime acceptability in the international family of nations.
In recent years,many dictatorships are being forced to conform to democratic tenets through the leverage that liberal global institutions wield and use as carrot and stick such as development finance and aid. The political conditionalities being attached to development assistance and foreign aid by pro- democracy bilateral and multilateral global institutions like IMF,World Bank and AfDB is that a country must respect the rule of law and property rights,protect human rights and democratise in order to be eligible for help to develop. Failure to do this the country risks losing out on development finance and aid. This has raised the cost of authoritarianism. Hence the emergence of competitive authoritarian regimes that pretend to be democratic while they are not..ZANU PF is one such a regime.
It is common knowledge that ZANU has been using its discretionary economic power and abuse of state resources to oil its party machinery.
Examples abound!
The distribution of land on partisan lines has been used to ensure that all beneficiaries remain beholden to the ruling party through state ownership of the land as awarding them titled deeds means losing control over them. That’s how ZANU enforces loyalty and anyone deemed disloyal could risk having their leases arbitrarily revoked. Agricultural inputs and food aid are distributed on partisan lines. Even mining claims to artesenal miners(formally makorokoza) whose businesses have been regularised given on partisan basis. There lies the anatomy of fear in the majority of the rural folk and all those in farming and mining communities who constitute 70% of our population. The fear is not in ZANU as an institution but fear of being deprived of their sources of livelihoods. In this case the assertion that politics is the concentrated expression of economics rings true.
Access to media is biased and coverage by the state broadcaster, both radio and TV,is partisan. Independent media is not that effective as it only reaches a small urban elite. The law itself is skewed in favour of the incumbent. Use of draconian pieces of legislation to suppress political activity is a reality. Use of patronage and corruption where tenders,business contracts and economic opportunities are awarded to cronies who plough back donations to the party remains the order of the day. All these are methods used by ZANU to oil its machinery against us.
It is against such odds that we have to marshal our energies after Congress. Now is the time to strategise on how to surmount such challenges.
Our submission is that for us to adequately confront an electoral competitive authoritarian regime like Zanu with its hyper-incumbency advantage the Party needs to be sufficiently resourced. A well crafted resource mobilization strategy must be put in place. Its time to think massive party commercial investments. Why can’t we own farms in the name of the party? Why can’t we run commercial investments vehicles as sustainable sources of funding the struggle going forward?Continued reliance on donor funding and state funding under the Political Parties Finances Act is no longer sustainable for a huge party like ours.
Media reforms remain critical together with electoral reforms. Institutionally,we need to have structures in every village. It is time to “de-hararenize” the Party and make it a mass party. This involves breaking the patronage network of ZANU. Let’s villagise our movement. Indeed under the capable leadership of President Chamisa,victory is certain.
With a radicalised youth that is ready to claim its share of the national cake through resource nationalism we can fund our struggle and rid ourselves of ZANU PF. It is time Mdc youths demand farms. It is time Mdc youths demand mining claims. Its time we disrupt the patronage network system that has sustained ZANU PF this far. It has to be fire with fire going forward!
Of course our duty as young social democrats is to start a debate on how to confront this monster. We believe in robust debate for the best policy direction. Let’s start the conversation!
The struggle continues!
Simba Mukori is a reaseacher and development practitioner.
Stephen Sarkozy Chuma is a media practitioner and MDC National Youth Assembly Secretary for Information and Publicity Candidate.
