Is Zimbabwe Coming of Age?

Financial Gazette

21st July 2016

A nation that is up to its nose in economic collapse demands that President Robert Mugabe’s government should act to the many voices that are speaking out against its failures; but can the voice of reason finally prevail; asks Ray Ndlovu.

A FORTNIGHT ago President Robert Mugabe’s government came face-to-face with an unusual enemy: Simmering anger of an entire nation.

For the first time in the country’s 36-year history, the majority of the country’s citizenry took a stand, after being called upon, through social media messages, to rally together and shut down the country.

That there was no direct involvement of political parties and that there was no clear leader should be giving the ruling elite sleepless nights.

Without the use of posters, radio or television to mobilise support #Tajamuka/Sesijikile and #ThisFlag outfits successfully convinced millions of people to boycott both formal and informal work through social media.

The punch line of their #ZimShutDown campaign was to try and compel President Mugabe’s administration to fix the broken economy it presides over.

The success of the campaign shook government and the ruling ZANU-PF to their foundations.

Officials from ZANU-PF and government have been all over the show, trying to frustrate a repeat of the same. All along, the ruling party has been brandishing the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset) blueprint as the panacea to the country’s problems.

Through Zim-Asset, government has been promising 2,2 million jobs, among other things.

None of the promises have materialised.

Naturally, Zimbabweans have become angry with their government.

And the advent of social media has provided a platform for the voiceless through which they can mobilise and voice their concerns against those who lead them without necessarily looking up to media personnel, Members of Parliament or councillors to do it for them.

One thing most fascinating about President Mugabe’s latest challengers is that they drape the same national flag, which had been monopolised by ZANU-PF faithful.

Also, they pledge unwavering commitment to defending the very same national sovereignty that the ruling party passionately talks about at every opportune moment.

That alone, has meant that they cannot be faulted on account of being less patriotic to their country. It has also elevated them to some sort of vanguards of the new revolution.

The apprehension from government is understandable.

In power since 1980, ZANU-PF has remained in power by shrewdly routing political opponents that attempt to wrest the crown from it.

But this time, the ruling party is facing a new form of resistance — the ordinary people.

The power of the ordinary citizens has effectively reduced political parties, both the ruling party and opposition parties, to spectators.

Opposition political parties are currently playing second fiddle in latest pressure on the Zimbabwe government.

At the time of the shut down, Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) party, was receiving treatment from colon cancer in South Africa.

Tendai Biti of the People’s Democratic Party was also in London.

Even for those parties whose leaders were around at the time, they had no choice, but to join the bandwagon.

Joice Mujuru and her Zimbabwe People First party threw their weight behind the movement at the eleventh hour and so did many other political outfits.

Lawyer and member of the smaller MDC party led by Welshman Ncube, David Coltart, said in the absence of opposition political party mobilisation, “people power” had won.

The country’s opposition parties have remained deeply fragmented.

In the absence of a strong opposition, President Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party has simply enjoyed total political domination.

That political domination, however, has not extended over to the economy which is in disarray.

In fact, the current administration’s list of economic challenges keeps growing.

This is despite the post-election promises it made of economic prosperity and growth.

Government is currently grappling with persistent cash shortages, a struggle to service its wage bill for close to 500 000 civil servants, dwindling tax revenues, power outages, a hunger crisis, unemployment of over 90 percent and widespread company closures. The country is also indebted to the tune of US$10 billion.

Agreements made last October in Lima, Peru to pay US$1,8 billion of that amount by June, in order to access new funding from the West, have been pushed to September for fulfillment — a sign of the growing difficulties the country is facing in trying to raise the cash.

Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa was in Paris and London recently to seek new lines of credit.

He said the country had “nothing” in its coffers to navigate the maze of problems confronting it. Against that background, public anger is rising.

In the thick of things is a cleric called Evan Mawarire with his #ThisFlag campaign.

Just before his arrest last week Mawarire told the Financial Gazette that what he had started off as a way of highlighting his personal struggles could be the foundation for a citizen-led movement.

“It has taken a life of its own,” he said.

Political observers said this new phenomenon seems to have found resonance with the country’s youths, now fed up with being used and pushed around by politicians while they wallowed in poverty.

And the authorities’ spine-chilling warnings against the use of social media for subversive messages, as they attempt to cut the wind in the sails of the citizen’s movement, may only serve to brew more anger in the youths and general public.

Although the stay-away left a lasting impression on the country’s history, independent economist, John Robertson, said the level of economic activity was currently so low in the country that losses to businesses were most likely very minimal.

“The level of economic activity is so low, such that it was like an extra Sunday in the week. It is not going to be a very high cost (protest) to country; it would have if we had lots of factories, but we don’t… ,” Robertson observed.

Nevertheless, the toll on tourism could last long after images of violence in some places were splashed across the world by media outlets, blemishing the country’s already dented image. As the country continues to drift into even more uncertainty, the question is: Is Zimbabwe coming of age?

Will President Mugabe’s government even act on the people’s demands when denial of the evident rumblings seems to be completely blinding it at the moment?