By Takura Zhangazha*
They can be a bit of a laugh, if you are on social media,
the political-economic goings on in Zimbabwe.
They should not (strictly speaking) be.
But on social media they are and humour/satire is definitely a good
thing. Even if just for personal or
collective catharsis. Especially if it’s all about events that
occur in the immediate. Or those that are ephemeral in their recurrence. The recent fuel price increase (in local RTGS
currency) and the announced expansion of the Zimbabwe United Passenger Company
(Zupco) bus services for urban rural public transport.
It was an announcement that sent Zimbabwean social media into
apoplectic frenzy. Even the infamous choice of words by vice president Chiwenga
at the recent Zimbabwe International Trade Fair
(ZITF) in a speech where he is reported to have said, and I am paraphrasing here, ‘it will work,
it will not work’ in one sentence has been invoked to the greater extent be
derisive of the announcement.
And its all fair game.
Laughter, satire and angst are necessary elements for free expression
and its cornerstone role in creating a culture of democracy in society.
The same elements also serve as indicators of what could be
symptoms of what is ailing a society. In our case and in light of the liberalization
of fuel prices and expansion of ZUPCO services, the actual ailment is the
political economy, class and hedonistic individualism in the country.
I will start with the political economy that Mnangagwa’s government
is trying to construct. While there may
be varying labels given to it, it is clearly a pro-business, pro-(global) free
market ideological framework of political economy. Hence the clear prioritization of ‘organised’
private capital. I mention ‘organised
capital ’ largely because that is what this government is hoping it will satisfy
with its latest monetary policy maneuvers. And true to form, in the media reports
that have followed the changes to the fuel interbank exchange rate, private and
relatively big/organized capital is not complaining.
Nor are bus owners that
are contributing to the Zupco fleet. I
am not sure about the owners of the smaller and less organized private kombis
but it would be safe to surmise that they are probably not happy. But government is not too concerned about the
latter because they are not quite ‘organised capital’ . In fact they are viewed with political suspicion
as to their motives during industrial actions such as stay-aways and demonstrations.
In turning to issue of class and class consciousness (if
any), the evident increase in the use of the cheaper Zupco buses by the public
is evidence of a pressing social and economic need. That is affordable public transport by the
urban formal and informal worker. Never
mind the discomfort or the inability of Zupco to meet the overwhelming public demand,
the response is reflective of that least talked about component of our society,
economic class differentiation and expectation. For the poorer working class high
density suburb residents it is a question of dealing with what is affordable at
a given moment. They may not be a in a
position to question the sustainability of the Zupco project but will most
certainly put two and two together to realise its utilitarian value. For
now. Never mind the opinion of those that
have cars or can afford other modes of urban transportation.
Speaking of private cars as current modes of urban
transportation also helps us to arrive at the third aspect of our societal
ailment which is what Zizek refers to as ‘hedonistic individualism’. Or to put it more plainly, a narcissistic form
of individualism that does not take into account any forms of a public interest
collective.
Or as some synonyms to hedonism
help make it more clearer, ‘self-gratification; lack of self restraint, immoderation, overindulgence, overconsumption, excess, extravagance.’
In
this individual anger which has a collective dimension to it only by way of
quantitative measurement makes us long for lifestyles that do not reflect our economic
and political realities. Both individually
and collectively. What then becomes an
issue is how to avoid having to be the one that gets on a Zupco or a kombi in
the first place. Because that would be a
sure sign of ‘poverty’ in the eyes of many.
And not just material poverty but lifestyle poverty which in turn leads
to assumptions of being individually unsuccessful in life.
The irony of it all
is that the Mnangagwa government is not too much concerned with the
public service role of the expanded Zupco bus services or talking the bad
effects of its neoliberal economic policy framework. Instead they anticipate resistance in one
form or the other and all their actions are mitigatory measures intended to
serve organized capital while keeping the masses at bay. And even more striking is their very class
oriented approach to the political economy by tacitly seeking to bring ‘order’
by reinstating social class to goods and services. For example the rise in fuel costs means that
depending on your income you will eventually opt for public transport- a
development that a good number of young urban Zimbabweans may find to be a sign
of individual failure.
We can still laugh our tear ducts dry about Zupco and compare a
bus ride to the price of an egg. It is
indeed very funny. But it is in the final
analysis an indicator of the fact that we are fast losing out on the value of
the public in public services. Not that
the government intends to restore public services as a public good in the best public interest. Far from it. The intention is to reduce the influence of private urban transport's influence on demonstrations or stay aways. But that we cannot bring ourselves to value
public goods and services that are for the many and not the few is our primary public challenge.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity
(takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)
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