Senator David Coltart
Commentary
26th July 2018
Bill Clinton when once asked about what was they key issue in his 1992 election campaign famously replied “its the economy stupid†– and it was. For all the experience that incumbent President George H Bush brought to the electorate the fact remained that the US economy was faltering, which Clinton was savvy enough to understand – and he addressed it more effectively than Bush was able to. Clinton won the election.
There is no doubt that the Zimbabwean economy is a major issue in the election scheduled for this coming Monday the 30th July which must be addressed by all the leading contestants. After 38 years of ZANU PF misrule the economy is on its knees and the great potential of Zimbabwe is unrealised. Although the economy grew during the brief period when the MDC was in charge of the economy between 2009 and 2013, since ZANU PF took over total control again they have reversed whatever gains were achieved during that period. Zimbabweans are desperate for jobs to be created and whoever convinces them that they are better equipped to address their economic concerns will attract significant support.
However the question remains whether this in fact is the key issue facing the electorate.
Was Mugabe solely to blame for the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy?
If our concern is the economy we need to understand why the economy has been destroyed by ZANU PF. Emmerson Mnangagwa has tried to portray himself as a breath of fresh air; his rhetoric has been positive – he has promised to open up the economy, to tackle corruption and to repeal laws which have deterred foreign investment, such as the Indigenization Act. He has sought to distance himself from Robert Mugabe and seeks to convince the electorate that Mugabe is to blame for all Zimbabwe’s ills.
This narrative has been strengthened by the feud between the Lacoste and G40 factions within ZANU PF which have distracted us all so much in the last few years. The opposition and civic society has also been distracted by this feud. When the G40 held sway, Lacoste was held responsible for our woes; since the November coup d’ état the new government under Mnangagwa has tried to convince Zimbabweans that the G40 was the source of all corruption and mismanagement. Even some foreign governments have bought into this propaganda, believing that ZANU PF under Mnangagwa will usher in a new enlightened era. Many in the business community have swallowed the bait, hook, line and sinker.
In recent weeks ZANU PF leaders have sought to go beyond the G40 group to blame Mugabe himself for the chaos which has befallen Zimbabwe since independence. In the last few weeks the Herald has gone to the extent of “accusing†Nelson Chamisa of meeting Mugabe in Dubai, of wanting to appoint Grace Mugabe as Vice President. Whilst Chamisa has denied that he met Mugabe and that he has any intention of aligning with Grace Mugabe, the promotion of these falsehoods by the Herald and other State owned media illustrates how ZANU PF believes that it can lay the blame on Mugabe. In similar vein on the 29th June the Chronicle reported General Chiwenga criticizing Mugabe for blaming “his failures on sanctions even where he could have preferred solutionsâ€.
There is no doubt that Mugabe must take the lion’s share of the blame for the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy, rampant corruption and the gross human rights abuses which are the hallmark of his rule for 37 years. However can it be said that Mugabe is solely to blame and that Mnangagwa and the military establishment who support him can be exonerated? To be precise has the military itself played any role in the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy?
The role of the military leadership in destroying the Zimbabwean economy
Act 1 ; The DRC
In August 1998 Mugabe and the military command agreed to commit ZNA troops to the DRC. Thus started the Second Congo War which lasted five years and cost the lives, conservatively estimated, of at least 860 000 people.It became the deadliest war in African history, eventually involving nine African countries. But none was more committed to the war than Zimbabwe. Some 3 000 ZNA troops, supported by combat aircraft and armoured vehicles, were deployed immediately under the leadership of former Fifth Brigade commander Perence Shiri, who was then an Air Marshal in command of the Airforce of Zimbabwe. Some reports allege that as many as 13000 troops were deployed.
We shall never know the true cost of this deployment but it cost the nation dearly. It also profited a ruling elite within the military greatly. It is pertinent to recall what the UN Panel Chaired by Ambassador Mahmoud Kassem of Egypt reported to the Secretary General Kofi Annan on the 16th October 2002 about the “plundering of DRC natural resourcesâ€. The report (which can be read at https://reliefweb.int/report/burundi/plundering-dr-congo-natural-resources-final-report-panel-experts-s20021146 ) states at the relevant paragraphs:
“17. Although troops of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces have been a major guarantor of the security of the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo against regional rivals, its senior officers have enriched themselves from the country’s mineral assets under the pretext of arrangements set up to repay Zimbabwe for military services. Now ZDF is establishing new companies and contractual arrangements to defend its economic interests in the longer term should there be a complete withdrawal of ZDF troops.
22. The elite network of Congolese and Zimbabwean political, military and commercial interests seeks to maintain its grip on the main mineral resources – diamonds, cobalt, copper, germanium – of the Government-controlled area. This network has transferred ownership of at least US$ 5 billion of assets from the State mining sector to private companies under its control in the past three years with no compensation or benefit for the State treasury of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
23. This network benefits from instability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its representatives in the Kinshasa Government and the Zimbabwe Defence Forces have fuelled instability by supporting armed groups opposing Rwanda and Burundi.
24. Even if present moves towards peace lead to a complete withdrawal of Zimbabwean forces, the network’s grip on the richest mineral assets of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and related businesses will remain. Zimbabwe’s political-military elite signed six major trade and service agreements in August 2002 with the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Reliable sources have told the Panel about plans to set up new holding companies to disguise the continuing ZDF commercial operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a ZDF-controlled private military company to be deployed in the country to guard those assets.
27. The key strategist for the Zimbabwean branch of the elite network is the Speaker of the Parliament and former National Security Minister, Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa. Mr. Mnangagwa has won strong support from senior military and intelligence officers for an aggressive policy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. His key ally is a Commander of ZDF and Executive Chairman of COSLEG, General Vitalis Musunga Gava Zvinavashe. The General and his family have been involved in diamond trading and supply contracts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A long-time ally of President Mugabe, Air Marshal Perence Shiri, has been involved in military procurement and organizing air support for the pro-Kinshasa armed groups fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is also part of the inner circle of ZDF diamond traders who have turned Harare into a significant illicit diamond-trading centre.
28. Other prominent Zimbabwean members of the network include Brigadier General Sibusiso Moyo, who is Director General of COSLEG. Brigadier Moyo advised both Tremalt and Oryx Natural Resources, which represented covert Zimbabwean military financial interests in negotiations with State mining companies of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
This report has never been refuted by those implicated. It is significant that several of those implicated in the report are the same people brought into Cabinet by Mnangagwa. General Sibusiso Moyo, who was the face of the November 2018 coup is now Foreign Minister. Air Marshall Perence Shiri now holds the critically important Lands Ministry. But the critical point is that the deployment of troops was paid for by Zimbabwean taxpayers, and Zimbabwean soldiers loss their lives, while senior officers and leaders profited enormously.
Act 2 : the violence associated with the land reform programme
The DRC operations were in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But that isn’t all the military were involved in during the early 2000s. The violent land invasions which commenced in March 2000 were remarkably well coordinated countrywide. Although there was no obvious involvement of uniformed soldiers, the well planned operations uniformly implemented across Zimbabwe were done with military precision. When, for example, white commercial farmer Martin Olds was murdered on the 18th April 2000 in Nyamandlovu the manner of the assault on his homestead bore all the marks of the military. Although the propaganda at the time described Old’s assailants as war veterans, the people who besieged Old’s farmhouse used current military weapons and tactics. Many of the best commercial farms in Zimbabwe were handed over to senior military officers and they still remain in possession of those farms. ZANU PF would never have been able to wage their violent land reform programme without the support of the military, whose senior officers once again profited handsomely from the policy.
Act 3: the 2008 election violence
Fast forward to the 2008 elections. It is now common knowledge that Mugabe, having lost to Morgan Tsvangirai in the first round of elections, was tired and prepared to throw in the towel. In the six weeks it took to announce the “results†the military regrouped, persuaded Mugabe to stay on and contest the election. What followed was a massive deployment of the military throughout Zimbabwe, but particularly in areas which traditionally had voted for ZANU PF, but did not vote for them in the March 2008 general election. There have been numerous credible human rights reports published about the involvement of the military. One example is the following report
http://www.swradioafrica.com/Documents/The%20Military%20Factor%20in%20Zimbabwe.pdf.
This report and others document the role of people like then Brigadier General Sibusiso Moyo who was assigned the Midlands Province. Investigations by international human rights watchdog, Human Rights Watch (HRW), also implicated the military in widespread electoral abuses. In a report, HRW stated that the scale of military attacks exceeded “anything seen previously during Zimbabwe’s long history of electoral violenceâ€. Soldiers carried out scores of attacks in Harare and surrounding townships. The military takeover resulted in “an explosion in the level of violence in Zimbabweâ€. Such was the violence that Morgan Tsvangirai was forced to withdraw from the election and Mugabe won by default.
Act 4 – Mugabe becomes a civilian political fig leaf
Critically however at this point in history a marked shift in power occurred. Prior to this Mugabe undoubtedly wielded more raw power than the military. From March 2008 onwards Mugabe effectively became a civilian fig leaf covering de facto military rule. Although never described that way, what happened between March 2008 and June 2008 was in reality the first coup d’ état suffered by Zimbabwe. Mugabe then became subject to the whims of the military hierarchy , even though he, as I will show later, himself ironically forgot where the real power lay to his ultimate folly.
Act 5 – The military junta’s involvement in Marange diamond fields
At the same time the military restored Mugabe’s rule the wealth of the Marange alluvial diamond fields became apparent. A company, African Consolidated Resources PLC, had obtained an exclusive prospecting order over the diamond fields but were elbowed out by a variety of means. Seven companies, Marange Resources, Anjin Investments Ltd., Diamond Mining Company, Gyn Nyame Resources, Jinan Mining Ltd., Kusena Diamonds, and Mbada Diamonds, ultimately got control of the Marange diamond fields, many of them affiliated with the military heiarchy. To consolidate their grip in November 2008 Airforce of Zimbabwe (then under the direction of Perance Shiri) helicopter gunships were used to fire on small scale miners. It was alleged at the time that some 150 miners were shot by these gun ships.
During the period that the GNU operated between February 2009 and August 2013 there was a parallel economy with diamond proceeds not coming in to the central fiscus. There are numerous credible reports and other documents which show that massive profits were generated at this time, very little of which found itself in government coffers. What is clear is that the military hierarchy benefitted greatly from the Marange diamond operations, although the precise figures are still not known.
The military as a Corporation
The key point flowing from this is that the Marange diamond operations consolidated the transformation of the military into a Corporation. In other words as it had done in the DRC the military went way beyond its core Constitutional mandate of being a body responsible for the defence of Zimbabwe to a Corporation involved in business, which appears to almost exclusively benefitted its directors, being the military hierarchy. There is no evidence that the vasty profits generated by the military’s diamond mining in both the DRC and Marange ever trickled down to benefit rank and file soldiers.
Although the military role in the 2013 election was not as obvious as it was 2008, the military played a major role in ZEC and there is evidence that diamond proceeds were used to subvert the electoral process and result. There is no doubt that without the military’s assistance Mugabe and ZANU PF would not have won the 2013 election. Furthermore given Mugabe’s age and rapidly declining grip on the affairs of State his power vis a vis the military continued to decline. As such his role as a civilian fig leaf continued and his real power lessened even more.
Mugabe and Grace’s folly – not appreciating where the true power lay
However very few people understood where the real power lay, including Mugabe himself and certainly his wife Grace. Indeed nearly all of us, including me, were so distracted by the intra ZANU PF factional battle between the Lacoste faction and the G40 that we were distracted and lost sight of the fact the the real power behind the throne was the military hierarchy. Another serious error was made in surmising that the divisions within ZANU PF were mirrored in the military. I certainly made that error of judgment. In warning of a “perfect storm†through 2016 and 2017 I assumed that the military was just as divided as ZANU PF and that there would be an awful conflagration when one faction in ZANU PF asserted its authority over the other.
Clearly Mugabe made that error of judgement himself. Grace Mugabe also assumed that the military would never dare challenge her husband’s authority, not realizing who in fact was in command. In this regard it is clear that when Mugabe fired Mnangagwa at the behest of his wife he assumed that General Chiwenga and the rest of the military would obey him. When that didn’t materialize and Mugabe was forced to try to effect Chiwenga’s arrest on his return from China, Mugabe must have assumed that the remainder of the military command would side with him as President against General Chiwenga. As we know know they didn’t and Chiwenga’s subordinates foiled Chiwenga’s arrest.
Operation “restore legacy†– or Operation “restore the military elites interestsâ€?
At the time that information was not in the public domain and so I was surprised as most people were when General Chiwenga held a press conference on Tuesday the 14th November flanked by nearly all his senior officers in both the army and airforce. The only arm of the disciplined forces which didn’t fall in line was the ZRP. The divisions which we had seen within ZANU PF and which I assumed would appear also appear in the military, along ethnic or political lines, did not appear. The interests of the military hierarchy clearly transcended the factions within ZANU PF. In other words the military corporation’s interests were being threatened and it responded to protect its interests not so much ZANU PF’s.
After the coup it was critical for the facade of civilian rule to be restored as quickly as possible. The junta went to a military judge in the High Court, Judge Chiweshe, to get him to rule that the coup was lawful. ZANU PF held its Congress and Emmerson Mnangagwa was elected to replace Mugabe. Mnangagwa appointed his new Cabinet which further revealed where the true power lay – Sibusiso Moyo, the face of the coup, was brought in as Foreign Minister; Perance Shiri was brought into the critical Minister of Lands post.
Where the real power lies today – Mnangagwa is the new political fig leaf
But it was in the appointment of Chiwenga in December 2017 that we saw where the real power lay. Chiwenga was appointed 2nd Secretary of ZANU PF at its Congress on the 15th December and I assumed that his appointment as Vice President of Zimbabwe would follow quickly. But there was a delay until the 23rd December when he and Kembo Mohadi were appointed Vice Presidents. Then on the 28th December, when sworn in as Vice President, it was announced that Chiwenga would also be in charge of Defence. This demonstrated where the real power lay. In making this appointment Mnangagwa breached the Constitution – section 215 states clearly that the President “MUST appoint a Minister of Defenceâ€. Section 203 states that a Vice President “cannot hold any other officeâ€. In other words Mnangagwa was obliged to appoint a substantive Minister of Defence and could not lawfully appoint someone who simply oversaw the Ministry. Mugabe had previously stretched the meaning of the Constitution to appoint Mnangagwa as Vice President and the person who oversaw the Ministry of Justice, because there is no Constitutional obligation for a President to appoint a Minister of Justice. But there is no ambiguity in the Constitution regarding the Minister of Defence. So Mnangagwa found himself between a rock and a hard place – he could not politically appoint Chiwenga to the position of a mere Minister of Defence or a Vice President without any real power, and yet he could not lawfully appoint Chiwenga to be both Vice President and the person in charge of the military. So he decided just to brazenly ignore the Constitution. There is a further political footnote to this move: in making this appointment Mnangagwa stripped ex ZAPU member Kembo Mohadi of the Ministry of Defence and Security role (a powerful position) and made him a weak Vice President with responsibility for national healing. Put simply this was the illegal concentration of enormous power in the hands of Chiwenga. The delay in this appointment between the 15th and 28th December suggests that there was considerable political maneuvering behind the scenes – a battle which Chiwenga and the junta won.
Since then there is little to suggest that Emmerson Mnangagwa is any less a political fig leaf than Robert Mugabe was. The power matrix created by the November coup has not changed. But for the military coup Mnangagwa would still be in exile and he is entirely dependent on the support of the military hierarchy to remain in power. The Cabinet is dominated by the same military figures involved in the DRC, the 2008 political violence and the Marange diamond fields – namely Chiwenga, Shiri and Sibusiso Moyo. I have deliberately not mentioned Gukurahundi, but it must be stated in this context than Chiwenga and Shiri were also the two principal army commanders most responsible for those atrocities. Chiwenga, then called Dominic Chinenge, was the Commander of 1 Brigade which provided all the logistical support needed by the notorious North Korean trained 5 Brigade commanded by Shiri. Mnangagwa was the Minister in charge of the CIO (Zimbabwe’s secret police) which provided intelligence to the 5 Brigade which resulted in the decimation of Joshua Nkomo’s ZAPU party structures. The events they were responsible in Matabeleland between January 1983 and June 1984 were crimes against humanity. In other words the same two principal military commanders who have engineered violence in Zimbabwe for the last 38 years are still there. Without their support Mnangagwa is powerless and he is entirely dependent on them.
The choice which confronts the Zimbabwe electorate
It is in this context that there are three broad political choices facing Zimbabweans as they go to the polls next Monday the 30th:
Mnangagwa and ZANU PF
Since being ushered into office after the November coup Mnangagwa has described his government as a “new dispensationâ€, committed to “zero tolerance to corruptionâ€, being “open to businessâ€. He has dressed himself up to appear warm and cuddly – his now trademark scarf is designed to project that image. He has said that he wants Zimbabwe to rejoin the Commonwealth and that he is committed to “free, fair and credible electionsâ€.
The problem is that there is a vast gulf between his rhetoric and his government’s actions. Firstly this is not a “new dispensation†– Mnangagwa himself has been at Mugabe’s side for 38 years and was his most trusted lieutenant. His Cabinet is made up of men who have been at the forefront of crimes against humanity and the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy. He has hardly any women in his Cabinet and few under the age of 65.
Secondly his claim that he has zero tolerance towards corruption is risible. His first act as President was to select some of the most corrupt men in Zimbabwe to senior positions in Cabinet. The only prosecutions to combat corruption have been against former ZANU PF opponents within the G40 faction. His move to create a special corruption task force has been placed within his Cabinet office, not under the prosecutorial authority. As Nelson Chamisa stated recently having hope in Mannagwa’s policy to combat corruption is rather like expecting a mosquito to be able to cure malaria.
Thirdly his claim to be open to business is clearly restricted to large foreign investments in the mining sector, which in Zimbabwe has been notoriously susceptible to corruption. Nothing has changed on the ground to help local businessmen and in fact the business environment has worsened during his 8 months in office. The situation has been compounded by populistsmoves. Vice President Chiwenga has told urban residents not to pay their rates. Recently the military, followed by the civil service, were awarded a large salary increase further exacerbating the budget deficit. Government spending continues apace. Finally ZANU PF have spent millions on their campaign and one wonders where all this foreign exchange to purchase new vehicles has come from, when every other business sector is starved for cash.
Finally his promises to respect the rule of law and to allow a “free, fair and credible†election have become farcical. The ZEC Chair he appointed has been arguably the worst ever. ZEC has systematically broken the Constitution, the Electoral Act and its Regulations in a brazen way, clearly designed to facilitate Mnangagwa’s election. State owned media such as the ZBC, Herald and Chronicle has also brazenly breached their Constitutional obligations to be impartial and, if anything, in recent weeks, have got far worse. All of these are harbingers of how Mnangagwa will respect the Constitution after the election if he is helped to victory by ZEC. The deployment of the military countrywide in the real areas to intimidate people demonstrates that Zimbabwe simply cannot be free in future under the military junta.
My view is that a vote for Mnangagwa and ZANU PF will simply perpetuate military junta rule, corruption and abuse of power in the country. It may be that Mnangagwa himself has had a damascene experience but that clearly hasn’t happened to the likes of Chiwenga, Shiri and others in his Cabinet.
The other candidates
There are a total of 23 Presidential candidates standing for election and some 50 parties. The Afrobarometer survey published on Friday the 20th July shows that ZANU PF as of early July enjoyed the support of 40% of the electorate and the MDC Alliance 37% support; 20% said they were not going to tell and only 3% supported all the rest of the candidates and the other parties combined. People in Zimbabwe still fear ZANU PF and the military and it can be assumed that those who were going to support ZANU PF would not fear saying where their support lay. It can be reasonably assumed then that the 20% do not support ZANU PF willingly at least. That survey is supported by the evidence on the ground – only ZANU PF and the MDC Alliance have been holding well attended rallies countrywide. The other Presidential candidates and their parties are hardly visible.
There are no doubt some very competent alternative Presidential candidates amongst the 21 other candidates. I worked with Joice Mujuru and Elton Mangoma in the GNU Cabinet and they are likable people. Nkosana Moyo is an intelligent, highly experienced technocrat. All would contribute greatly in government. But that is not the issue in this election. We do not have the luxury of dreaming in an academic way about who may be most competent to govern. That is a pointless exercise if there is no way that they are likely to be elected. In essence a vote for them is the equivalent of a vote for ZANU PF and Emmerson Mnangagwa, particularly in the Presidential race which requires a 50% plus 1 vote threshold to win.
Accordingly in my view a vote for any other Presidential candidate will in effect be a vote for the military junta. Voters have slightly more latitude at Council and House of Assembly level where there are undoubtedly some competent independent candidates. But that luxury does not apply at the Presidential election where every vote is critically important.
Nelson Chamisa and the MDC Alliance
The Zimbabwean electorate has had to get its mind around a young candidate who was not in consideration for the Presidency prior to the untimely death of Morgan Tsvangirai in February this year. Since his assumption as leader of the MDC Alliance Chamisa has been subjected to a barrage of fake news, much of it no doubt orchestrated by the western PR firm employed at great cost to the Zimbabwean tax payer by ZANU PF. Whilst there is no doubt that Chamisa made a few gaffs in the early days of his campaign he has matured rapidly and has established a remarkable rapport with the Zimbabwean electorate. Many of the things he has been criticized for – such as his dream of bullet trains and spaghetti roads, are in fact born of his optimism and youth. We have become so jaded and cynical that we forget that these things should be possible with the right policies and outlook. I listened to him address a closed meeting with Bulawayo businessmen last Saturday night and everyone came away highly impressed. The same thing happened on Monday evening this week in Harare. His grasp of complicated economic issues is outstanding.
I have known Nelson Chamisa since 1999 when th MDC was first formed. We were both elected to Parliament in June 2000 and have been firm friends every since, even during the years when the MDC split into two factions. We both went to Washington in November 2000 to lobby Congress and I remember then being so impressed by his maturity as a 22 year old. I was in Cabinet with him between 2009 and 2013 and we collaborated in a number of projects, particularly one which established computer resource centers in High Schools. His contributions in Cabinet were always on point and often witty. He has never been caught up in any scandal in his 18 years in public office.
A Team of “Rivalsâ€
I have observed his dealings with me this year. The day after he assumed his new role as President of the MDC Alliance he telephoned me out of the blue to say that whilst we have been in different parties he hoped I would work with him. It was that same spirit which lead him to request that I accompany him the UK in May when we met Boris Johnson. He is someone who understands what Abraham Lincoln did in forming a “team of rivals†– it takes great confidence in your own ability to do that, to bring in people who may have been competitors in the past. In my mind it demonstrates remarkable maturity; someone who wants to get the job done and who is not going to allow petty historical differences of opinion get in the way of forming the strongest possible team to govern Zimbabwe.
In forming this team of “rivals†Chamisa has managed to secure the support of leaders such as Tendai Biti who performed so well in the GNU between 2009 and 2013. Biti inherited a collapsed economy and through sensible policies stabilized and grew the economy. Biti had to operate within the same sanctions regime, same climatic conditions, same economic environment that his predecessor and successor Patrick Chinamasa has had to. Chinamasa (now Mnangagwa’s Finance Minister) was one of the architects of hyperinflation pre 2009 and the creator of the bond note post 2013, which dramatically undermined business confidence in the banking sector. In short order Chinamasa has overseen the further destruction of the economy since he took over from Biti’s highly successful tenure as Finance Minister. And little has changed since Mnangagwa took over from Mugabe. The economy has continued to decline and Chinamasa is now part of the populist moves to increase civil servants salaries by 17,5% and the calls for rate payers not to pay rates. Whilst these may sound appealing they will inevitably cause further inflation and destruction of the Zimbabwean economy. The point is that unlike Mnangagwa, who is surrounded by people who have implemented catastrophically bad policies their entire political careers, Chamisa is surrounded by people who in the recent past have demonstrably stabilized the economy, revived the heath and education sectors and generally performed well. It follows that Chamisa has a team which doesn’t rely on vague promises of being able to deliver – they have in fact shown they can deliver as they did when they were in government between 2009 and 2013.
SMART Policies
In addition the MDC Alliance has set out its policy objectives clearly in its SMART manifesto which Nelson Chamisa has had a major role in formulating. Those policies stand in marked contrast to ZANU PF’s policies. Space does not permit going into these policies in detail but in broad terms the MDC Alliance promises to implement certain polices which are anathema to ZANU PF. For example the MDC Alliance will implement the Constitution in all its fulness, in both letter and spirit. A key component of this will be to respect the devolution provisions which have been ignored by both Mugabe and Mnangagwa but also all its provisions which will create a society which respects the rule of law and fights corruption. The MDC Alliance’s monetary policies also stand in marked contrast to ZANU PF’s. Mnangagwa has said in the campaign that they will reintroduce the Zimbabwe dollar as quickly as possible. Chamisa has said his first act will be to demonetize bond notes and to approach the South African Government and Reserve Bank to arrange for Zimbabwe to fall within the South African Customs Union and for Zimbabwe to adopt the Rand until a SADC regional currency can be created. Regarding land tenure ZANU PF steadfastly refuses to grant title to individual land holders; Chamisa has made is quite clear that title will be granted. ZANU PF says that it is open for business but this appears to be directed at corrupt multi national companies in the extractive sector which will ravage Zimbabwe’s assets, destroy the environment and create very few long term secure jobs. Chamisa has said he will conduct an audit of these contracts to ensure that these investments benefit all Zimbabweans, not just the obscenely rich oligarch around Mnangagwa.
Being 40 is an attribute not a hindrance
Chamisa’s greatest attribute however in my mind though, funnily enough, is his age. Many have held that against him, but I believe it is his greatest asset. Aside from the fact that there are many other world leaders in their late 30s and early 40s doing a great job, particularly in France, Canada and New Zealand, I have felt for a long time that my generation is incapable of taking Zimbabwe forward because we are all still psychological victims of the brutal war which afflicted our nation in the 1970s. Our nation still collectively suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome which affects leaders my age, including myself obviously, in both ZANU PF and those opposed to them. In so many ways we are still fighting that war. Leaders Nelson Chamisa’s age are not so afflicted and are able to rise above that. Nelson Chamisa demonstrates that in his interaction with people, including the military. He has made it quite clear that he respects the military, but he will insist that they restrict themselves to their core constitutionally mandated business, that of defending peace loving Zimbabweans from external threats and to assist when national disasters befall our country. He clearly has no axe to grind with rank and file soldiers or for that matter with any other sector of our society, and so he is best placed to heal our nation.
In fact anyone who has attended any of his meetings or rallies comes away invigorated – he is a thoroughly nice person with a great sense of humor and tremendous compassion. He will in short make a superb President.
Layers of lipstick on a Pig
Zimbabweans have been bombarded with propaganda in the last few months favoring Mnangagwa and denigrating Chamisa. I have argued for weeks that ZANU PF have clearly engaged a sophisticated western PR firm to persuade Zimbabweans, diplomats and potential investors that the new regime is in fact a “new dispensationâ€; a reformed group of people who will transform Zimbabwe. The fancy billboards, the colorful scarves, the fine sounding rhetoric and clever advertisements are all part of a sustained campaign, no doubt costing millions, designed to dupe the Zimbabwean public. The same PR experts, in conjunction with the Zimbabwean State owned media, have done everything in their power to portray Chamisa as a young clown who is unfit to govern. They have twisted what he said, refused to report on his rallies attracting thousands across the country and ridiculed his statements in which he has raised genuine concerns about the fraudulent and illegal electoral process and other matters.
In fact these are all simply layers of lipstick on a pig. And the pig isn’t Emmerson Mnangagwa, – he is just another layer of lipstick – the pig is in fact the junta. A junta is defined as “a military or political group that rules a country after taking power by forceâ€. This is an international definition used to describe countless incidents down through history where undemocratic forces have seized power unconstitutionally. Zimbabwe is no different to these historical examples. There are few historical examples where juntas have helped nations. Because of the inherent violent nature of these types of regimes, they do not respect the rule of law and constitutionalism. It is simply a tragic myth that Zimbabwe can possibly be better in the hands of this small group of men who have wrought so much harm to Zimbabwe over 38 years.
If Zimbabwe is to move forward we need understand what this election is all about – “it’s the junta – stupidâ€. If we do not end the rule of the junta on Monday the 30th July 2018, the misery of Zimbabweans will continue. The person and party best placed to end that is Nelson Chamisa and the MDC Alliance.
Vote wisely and bravely.
God bless Zimbabwe.
Senator David Coltart
Bulawayo
26th July 2018