The new lords in town and my quest for the Authentic Africa- Rashweat Mukundu

As I continue my long and winding journey to attend an African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) NGO Forum meeting on freedom of expression in Banjul, The Gambia, my journey has taken me through Ghana, the venerable cradle of Africa’s nationalist movement and first African independent state. I last visited Ghana 6 years ago, then I was intrigued by the physical presence of the Institute of African Studies at Ghana University. It is right at the entrance of the University, and is the first thing you see. It is the enduring testimony of Kwame Nkrumah’s: “seek ye the political kingdom first and everything will be added unto you”, only that there are now new lords in town, and far from the situation Nkrumah would have dreamed of.

Having a whole day to seat and do nothing in Accra I tried my luck at a transit VISA to be freed from the prison that is Kotoko International airport. Kotoko international airport is right in the thick of things in Accra and a walkable distance to nearby shops. As I strolled into town, a familiar sound of sirens and blue lights became audible and later visible from a distance, increasingly getting closer. My thinking was these are the usual chiefs of the city, Hon Vice Presidents and Ministers. If it was the Chief of Chiefs himself, then I am sure to have seen a kilometer long line of mean-looking outriders, hovering helicopters and a whole battalion of soldiers. As the single police bike and three 4x4s got closer, the confusion increased so much that I had to jump out of the way into a ditch lest I was hit by a taxi that dangerously weaved its way out of the oncoming blue lights. Lo and behold sat two Chinese men in the Toyota Fortuner that was sandwiched in the middle by two blue lights cars and the motorbike in front. The Men were not dressed formally but wore T shirts and seemed to be scrutinizing the many new buildings sprouting in Accra. The link cannot be lost. Within minutes the spectacle was gone and I intently focused on which direction to take amid the irritating humid sun and noisy honing by taxis enticing me for a ride at a price. I finally settled for Chris, simply because he was alone. I wanted someone I could talk, ask abot Ghana, life and a favour to take me to a peoples market and possibly buy myself an authentic Ghanaian kente shirt. It was the quest for the authentic Africa, the fulfillment of the image of Ghana that I have always had and one that I always look for when in town. Hence started the debate and disappointment. First Chris was not that good at English, and as we struggled at what I really wanted, he had one thing in mind to showcase to me the latest mall in town. All my attempts to explain that I wanted to go to a peoples market fell on deaf ears, “It nice, Shoprite, Mr. Price, yu see der, all of dem, let gooo let gooo” he insisted. I relented and headed to Accra shopping mall, a gigantic South African modeled shopping mall, that exhibits the growing economic and cultural imperialism of South Africa beyond doubt.

Chris was so happy to share with me the new success stories of Ghana, the shopping mall and the new buildings that the China man in the Toyota Fortuner was intently looking at. The Accra I knew is no longer recognizable as the new developments take shape, new buildings are at every corner, the latest cars, and yet the same vendors I last saw years ago remain in their place. One gets a foreboding feeling that amidst the changes that are blinding Chris, my taxi driver; nothing really is changing in the lives of ordinary Ghanaians. The same poverty, the same daily struggles, elections, new leaders, life goes on and years mingle into history, into the past, like they were never separate. The new lords in town can now afford to move under tight security and possibly remind, more vividly, of how far Ghana has moved from Nkrumah into into the hands of a new master, the Chinese. This is not to say China has no right to invest where it wishes, but the nature of the investment seems not to have a people development approach. China’s relations exhibit this irony, of too much investment whose result are devoid of ending poverty. The workers building the new buildings are Chinese, the contractors Chinese and i am sure the money is going back to China. This and the disappointment of failing to buy a kente shirt led me to track back to my base.
“I told yu its good haaa” said Chris, I simply nodded my head, my mind drifting so far away.
//End//

‘ZANU PF: The unstoppable machine faces its final battle’- Rashweat Mukundu

When ZANU PF Chairman Simon Khaya Moyo declared in September that ZANU PF was an unstoppable machine, deriding the MDC parties as political upstarts who will never ascend to the throne, many would have taken such statements as the usual bluster that comes from ZANU PF from time to time. Events since then, especially when the constitutional consultative process finally reached the capital Harare, are telling in what the ZANU PF chairperson meant.
The meetings in Harare had been abandoned amid violence and disruptions. So intense was the violence that even ZANU PF representative in the process MP Paul Mangawana had to run away from marauding ZANU PF youths in the poor suburb of Mbare. The state owned The Herald newspaper struggled with words to capture the violence, only stating that some members of political parties chanted slogans and fought. The newspaper had no guts to name which party the perpetrators belong to, neither could it garner the guts to blame the MDC parties as usual, because the evidence against ZANU PF was overwhelming.

The violence was not spontaneous but appeared well organized, not by the party on its own but with help from the state security machinery especially the intelligence. The police stood by while MDC supporters and the COPAC teams were beaten up and meetings disrupted. It had to be so in urban areas because these are strongholds of the MDC parties and ZANU PF had to flex more muscle to disrupt the constitutional making process. Intimidation in the constitutional outreach process was much easier in rural areas were communities, coming out of the violence of June 2008 are so cowed that it only takes the shaking of a matchstick box to get subservient compliance. Urban areas present a problem for ZANU PF as threats are not easily heeded, hence the intense and well coordinated violence. To beef up numbers , perpetrators had to be bused in from rural areas. Some were barefoot, visibly drunk and could not name/recognize a single street in the vicinity.
The violence in Harare over the constitutional outreach is not an isolated event that should be dismissed but a critical moment for the people of Zimbabwe more so for the MDC parties in the Unity government. The talk of a free and fair election in 2011 is now under serious doubt in circumstances were ZANU PF has no shame in demonstrating that it still has no other strategy other than violence and intimidation to win an election. The violence is an indicator of what is to come in 2011, should the MDC parties decide to participate, in what is proving already, to be a deeply flawed process towards an election. For SADC, the message that South Africa President and SADC Mediator to Zimbabwe, Jacob Zuma, emphasized at the August SADC Heads of States summit in Windhoek, Namibia, that Zimbabwe must hold a free, fair and violence free election, must be put into practical steps by defining, speaking out and ensuring that the violence of 2008 and that of September/October is not repeated. SADC has an obligation, at least, to guarantee and put pressure on President Mugabe to put his dogs on a leash to ensure a peaceful election.
They are many dimensions that make the planned 2011 election dangerous for Zimbabwe. Despite his public pronouncements on his health and age which are becoming more desperate by the week, President Mugabe is visibly tired and slowing down. And the varying and contesting factions in ZANU PF are all aware of this fact of life. 2011 is the last chance for President Mugabe to find a solution to the dangerously delayed succession question in ZANU PF and possibly the leadership of the country should his party remain in power. Dangerously delayed because President Mugabe has demonstrated over the years his wish that this moment never comes. By the will of God and nature the question finally has come, whether he likes it or not. The danger that he faces is that the levers of the party are beginning to slip off his hands and control. His trusted lieutenants, the likes of Ignatius Chombo, his close relatives Leo Mugabe and others are nowhere near the centre of power. He is confused and unaware of the intentions of the two rival factions that he has played one against each other over the years, that is General Solomon Mujuru and Defence Minister Emmerson Munangagwa camps. While the Mujuru camp has gained ascendency with the appointment of Joice Mujuru as Vice President, Mugabe still does not trust this camp which he sees as cozying up too much to the MDC and western powers and possibly prepared to cut a deal with the MDC. The Munangagwa camp represents the shock-troops that Mugabe has relied on in times of need, but this camp has lost ground politically in Zimbabwe and ZANU PF. Its leader Munangagwa was trounced in his constituency of Kwekwe and had to seek a political home elsewhere. While Munangagwa was expected to give up in view of the ascendency of VP Mujuru, he is reported to have told his supporters that some people are seated at fireplaces with no fire (kudziya zvoto zvisina moto ), meaning they are placeholders , misled or misinformed. This rivalry, Mugabe will have a hard time resolving while maintaining control on the levers of the party and protecting his own legacy, relatives and empire. This coupled with the fact that ZANU PF itself does not understand what the powerful Military Generals are thinking and planning, apart from the fact that they would want to see ZANU PF in power. The Generals who are part of the generality of war veterans are known to refer to a pact that states that they should be given a chance after the political leaders or nationalists who joined them in the liberation struggle in Mozambique and Zambia have had their chance at the throne. The Generals might as well want a fulfillment of that ‘pact’. The violence being witnessed in Harare might as well be coming and being organized by one faction in ZANU PF with intentions of poisoning the status quo and disrupt any process that might lead or result in the MDC winning an election and/or another faction in ZANU PF winning control of the party and an election. Despite the seemingly unending flow of energy, President Mugabe is now a prisoner of a situation of his own making. The hyenas in his party are all circling and waiting to pounce. This situation is dangerous not only for those in ZANU PF but for the whole country. This is so because since independence ZANU PF has fused the party and the state to such as extent that there is no difference. The MDC parties in the GNU will testify to how a cleaner in their offices at Munhumutapa and security guard at the entrance to Munhumutapa building are not only civil servants but war veterans, branch or district leaders of the ZANU PF party and activists who can perpetrate violence against the same MDC Minister they probably serves tea at the office. At the top the linkages are even murky. This scenario means that should the factions in ZANU PF realize that the Emperor has lost control and go for each other, the Zimbabwe state, as we know it today, will collapse. At some moment, Zimbabwe has the possibility of reaching the post Siadi Barre, Somalia scenario. The unstoppable machine faces many challenges both within and without, and it is critical that all these issues be taken into consideration as the MDC parties decide on participation in an election in 2011. Civil society needs to pull its socks, possibly right to its neck, in seeking to avoid a total collapse of the Zimbabwe state and seek the protection of lives. What is at stake for Zimbabweans is not just a free and fair election but survival. SADC must be prepared for more tumultuous times to come. //End//
Rashweat Mukundu is Human rights activist and a journalist he can be reached on rashweatm@yahoo.com

Zimbabwe Indigenisation law, all about Mugabe’s power, after all- Rashweat Mukundu

Zimbabwe Indigenisation law, all about Mugabe’s power, after all- Rashweat Mukundu

Zimbabweans, weighed down by the decade long economic and political crisis, now face another challenge in the proposed Indigenisation and Empowerment Act. The new law came in the absence of clear national objectives of what it is meant to achieve nor an appreciation of Zimbabwe’s current economic crisis, where creating stability not scare-mongering are key. It still baffles many why now, and pointers are that this is another weapon in ZANU PF armoury to confuse the current political set up, trap and plunge the citizens and the country into another crisis and the abyss.

Post 2000 ZANU PF cannot survive without a crisis and an enemy. At every turn when the party’s power is on the decline, a crisis is invented and an enemy to fight is found. It is important to note that the Zimbabwe indigenisation discourse is not a new issue. It has been running since 1980 and was the basis upon which the chaotic land reform was initiated. On the positive side in the 1980’s and 1990’s and in the absence of any law, successful black businesses were set up in the banking and telecommunications sectors with government’s support. These were new business that created jobs and wealth, they was no takeover of non Zimbabwean businesses. On the contrary many non Zimbabweans were flooding the country, setting up their own industries. It is necessary to give this background to demarcate economic empowerment from politicking. Without it, it will appear that Zimbabwe has had no indigenous businesses until the promulgation of the controversial Indigenisation and Empowerment Act. It is also important to link and demonstrate a continuum in ZANU PF’s political strategy, guised as empowerment. The chaotic land reform was the first project of the so called empowerment process and succeeded it trapping the mostly rural community in a cycle of political violence from which many have still not recovered from. More importantly for ZANU PF, the party created a land owning oligarchy that is prepared to prop up the party. In the words of Zimbabwe’s Prisons Commissioner Retired General Paradzai Zimhondi, he is prepared top take up arms to defend his peace of land, and indeed to defend ZANU PF. ZANU PF assertion that the land reform was a success and benefited 500 000 families is far from the truth. On the contrary the land reform created over one million landless, unemployed, destitute Zimbabweans, mostly former farm workers. If the land reform was meant to be benefit Zimbabweans then surely the one million unemployed, destitute farm workers should have been resettled and supported to be productive farmers. 10 years down the line 5 million of Zimbabwe’s population still relies on food aid despite the ‘thousands’ of new farmers. It is important to give this background to the land reform as the indigenisation act follows this well known ZANU PF strategy of relying on a racial discourse to advance its political agenda. This discourse started with white farmers and was extended to include farm workers and in 2005 was extended to urban workers and dwellers ‘without totems’ or proper Zimbabwean identity when millions more were made homeless under a supposed urban clean-up operation, ‘Operation Restore Order’..

While ZANU PF always couches its so called economic empowerment programmes in language of anti-colonialism and black empowerment it must be noted that this is only a disguise for a politically self-serving, fierce and often violent reordering of society as part of what the ruling elite refers to as resolving injustices of the colonial era. This ideology is based on a belief that the nation state should be identified through one political culture as defined by ZANU PF. These projects from the land reform, to operation restore order and the indigenisation ac are therefore all linked to entrench ZSANU PF's hegemony and ward off any threats to its hold on power. The Indigenisation is he new strategy in preparation for a new election at the end of he Government of National Unity. What the land reform programme succeeded in doing was to create internal refuges that have no capacity to challenge the system or participate in many national processes such as elections. Indeed many of the farm workers lost not only their employment but citizenship. The indigenisation law is a therefore a second act of Zimbabwe’s political drama, again couched in the same language of anti- imperialism and black economic empowerment. This new law is an attempt to bribe the young generation, so that like the older generation trapped in the land reform discourse, the youth can equally be trapped in the language of indigenisation, thereby propping ZANU PF. The current struggle in the Zimbabwe Government of National Unity on the need to reform the law is centred on how to define an indigenise Zimbabwean. Hardliners within he ZANU PF establishment insist that this definition cannot be extended to include third or fourth generation Indians, Whites or other races. It becomes more than clear that a small group will emerge with more wealth, while millions more will emerge more poorer. With an estimated 90% unemployment, the 10% percent employed will be wiped off. ZANU PF and Youth and Indigenisation Minister Saviour Kasukuwere have failed to explain his intentions beyond attacking his opponents with emotion and rhetoric. Kasukuwere has managed to bring to national debate a policy that in a normal country would easily have been thrown away. The problem with Zimbabwe is that so many capable people have been corrupted. These include that what should be decent minds in Industry and Commence and the academia. Many who will spend acres of media space defending a patently racist and retrogressive law.

The Indigenisation debate in Zimbabwe has largely remained a political debate, because that is precisely what ZANU PF intends to achieve with this law, political not social transformation ends. No n umbers or figures are being talked of because they are none. ZANU PF has failed to explain why thousands of families in the Marange are, where the Chiadzwa diamonds mines are located, are not benefiting form the minerals located right in their fields and ancestral land. The party has not explained how these communities, who are on the contrary being moved from their land will benefit from their diamonds. The law is an elitist and political enterprise that does not cater for the ordinary Zimbabwean, indigenisation therefore means ZANU PF loyal black person. ZANU PF has fails, so far, to explain who within the so called indigenous people will benefit from the company grabs. What we have witnessed so far are queues of petrified business owners, lining to see Kasukuwere to explain themselves and how they will indigenise. It is clear that this act, like the land reform programme will plunge Zimbabwe further into the abyss. The law is an attempt to muddy the political scene and emerge with solutions and as ‘champions of the people'

Recent concessions on the part of ZANU PF to reform he law remain far short on meeting concerns expressed by business and some within the ZANU Pf establishment like Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono that this law will result in another land grab like chaos. //End//