By Takura Zhangazha*
It will take a while yet for the national after effect of the 2018
harmonised election to wear off. Praise
singers of Emerson Mnangagwa will continue justifying his eventual victory while
those of the opposition will continue to cast extremely negative aspersions to
it.
What will however be a reality is that Cabinet, Parliament and local government councils’ will
be formally constituted and start doing some sort of work. As per their constitutional and respective
political party mandates.
Expectations will no doubt be high. It will be almost like watching a football match
and rooting for your favourite team or shrilly deriding the performance of your
opponent.
For the (still) ruling Zanu Pf party, it will be a question
of performance legitimacy. Quite what sort of performance it expects of itself
and others is not altogether politically clear.
It is however very much known behind the elite scenes that it is an ideologically
neoliberal ‘performance’ that is expected.
In almost 'oxymoronic' fashion, it
promises ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’ while at the same time touting the ease of doing
business and the de-unionisation of labour.
It is the same thing with the mainstream opposition
political parties. They too made (and
still make) promises about job creation while using a neo-liberal economic template
that does not take kindly to decent wages let alone working conditions for
workers.
So what we have is a neo-liberal/capitalist economic ideological
framework being touted as the panacea for Zimbabwe’s economic challenges. And this across the political divide.
Yet we are presented (by the mainstream print and electronic
media) with an assumedly highly strung, ‘do or die’ political contestation
between the major political parties. All of whom have a neo-liberal ideological outlook
that focuses more on global capital than adopts a people centered approach to
national wealth redistribution. All in the spirit of seeking the attention of
western and eastern global economic powerhouses. Hence the big battles about the legitimacy of
the election resided not in the people of Zimbabwe, but what observer missions
had to say. At least eventually.
What then obtains is an interesting convergence of an
electoral process with a neo-liberal ideological outlook that is deemed as
progressive by the local and global political elite.
Its almost an attempt at not only ending ‘ideology’ in Zimbabwean
politics but more significantly a negation of history on the part of the
largest political parties that have emerged after the 2018 election. Both have moved away from their founding
values and principles without an iota of historical guilt. Largely because they have not had internal
democratic practices and pander more to personalities than people-centered and organic democratic
ideas. Their internal autocratic
characteristics do not however end there (i.e internally).
It also cascades into the Fanonian national consciousness and
creates a popular culture founded on elitism and borderline personality cults. The
pitfalls of which become apparent with statements such as ‘we don’t care who we
vote for as long its not Zanu Pf/MDC/G-40.’
Hence for many a Zimbabwean voter it is nto so much the ideas that
motivate our political actors that matter but who they are and what their
personality may or may not represent. By way of age or association.
The easier route is to accept this as political reality and
watch it all play itself out or join the fray.
Until the next election in 2023.
The more conscientious route is to query these low levels of
progressive, democratic and organic national consciousness in order to proffer
solutions not just in the now but for posterity. This would mean seeking to dismantle this
emergent neoliberal electoral-ideological complex in favour of a social democratic one.
And this would be what is tantamount to belling the electoral -ideological
cat. A daunting task in its proverbial
as well as realistic sense. Because it
has so many backers (global and local capital),
a non-critical but highly personal electorate and potential profiteers,
either side of the political divide.
The issue would be to at least set in motion the ability to
put up warning signs of where the country is going. That is to an elitist political
and economic permanence that is not designed to serve the majority of the people
of Zimbabwe. And that would have us in
perpetual electioneering mode, not on the basis of ideological differences but
on the regrettable premise of who should be in power. For
its own sake and in search of an end to popular angst at the long-duree rule of
Zanu Pf.
Two critical interventions therefore come into vogue. The first is out rightly political in so far
as it seeks to circumvent continued electioneering. This being that the constitution of Zimbabwe
must be amended in order to repeal the very idea of a ‘harmonised election’. There has been no such thing since this was
introduced fully in 2008.
What should be considered an
option is that of first of all separating local government and national
elections. And in the process introducing,
for both plebiscites, a proportional representation
system. With the elections for the
national assembly determining which party in Parliament elects the executive
president. This would mean every
political party gets a seat at the legislative table. Not just on the basis of the personalities
that lead them, but more significantly on the basis of values, principles and
ideas that they posit to the Zimbabwean electorate and public.
The second most significant intervention in the public
sphere would be the establishment of alternative economic models as solutions
to the current neoliberal dominant one we are saddled with.
And the initial one must clearly be one that
seeks first a social democratic approach to the national economy. That is, one that protects public wealth
(land, health, transport, water, education, media) from the avaricious hands of
private capital while at the same time establishing a baseline social welfare system
for Zimbabweans. And with a strict
understanding of our national context before we seek to emulate a dying
neo-liberalism (whichever way you look at it) in the global north and east. That way, we will have belled the cat.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity
(takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)
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