The Financial Gazette

First step, disengage war veterans from political activities

National Agenda with Bornwell Chakaodza

VICE–President John Nkomo may have outraged his hard-line colleagues in ZANU-PF when he suggested, in a recent statement, that the party which, along with PF-ZAPU, spearheaded the country’s liberation struggle needs to shift from being a liberation movement to a development-oriented political party to remain relevant to the needs and wants of the country.

Speaking to party supporters and farmers in Masvingo South, Nkomo said having delivered on its pre-independence pledges, ZANU-PF needed to change focus to remain relevant.
“This is the time for the party to shift from being a liberation movement to a party that is development-oriented if we are to continue being relevant to the needs of the people in the 21st century.
“We cannot continue being a liberation movement. That time is past,” he was quoted as saying.
Well said Mr Vice– President, but it is doubtful that many followers of ZANU-PF understood or appreciated the import of what Nkomo meant by advocating the transformation from a liberation movement to a bona fide political party with the interests of citizens at heart.
This is particularly so when one considers the often repeated mantra about liberation war credentials being an essential pre-requisite for a leadership position in Zimbabwe.
To the rank and file of ZANU-PF, it is the party’s role in the liberation struggle that justifies its refusal to submit to the popular will of the people even when this is expressed within the context of democratic election.
The question then becomes: Why did we fight to dislodge Ian Smith from power unless it was for the purpose of ushering in democracy and freedom of choice for the people of Zimbabwe?
There are several factors that make Nkomo’s proposal a tall order for a party that is steeped in out-dated nationalist philosophies underpinned by an alleged and pseudo western imperialist and neo-colonialist threat. When the ZANU-PF leadership urges its followers to remain vigilant against neo-colonialists and imperialists, the obvious impression created is that the struggle may be in abeyance for now, but liberation war forces must remain on alert to repel the new neo-colonialist enemy when he strikes.
This is the mindset implanted in ZANU-PF followers which is designed to perpetuate the liberation struggle mentality so that coercion and intimidation are maintained as the preferred instruments of political mobilisation and organisation in place of tried and tested democratic processes.
Clearly, this is why ZANU-PF has enlisted the war veterans to drive its campaign in the current constitution outreach exercise.
With memories still fresh of the violence of the 2008 presidential elections, the presence of the war veterans is clearly meant to intimidate the rural population to toe the line or face the well known consequences of rejecting ZANU-PF.
Common sense suggests that their presence means there is an enemy to be repulsed and well-documented utterances of ZANU-PF officials routinely identify the new enemy as the followers of the Movement of Dem-ocratic Change (MDC) formations. Their deployment in rural areas suggests the new enemy of the liberation struggle is MDC, which must be defeated if the gains of the liberation struggle are to be maintained and protected.
It is thus worth noting that Vice- President Nkomo did not elaborate exactly how ZANU-PF can be transformed into the political party with a viable economic revival strategy, when in word and deed, the party behaves as though it is engaged in a new struggle against new enemies.
It is doubtful that even Nkomo himself appreciates the full implications of such a process because a complete metamorphosis of ZANU-PF from a liberation movement to a political party will mean a paradigm shift from the party’s anachronistic personality cult style of leadership that upholds the liberation war heroes as permanently infallible.
Indeed, if ZANU-PF were to undertake genuine political reforms, Nkomo himself and scores of its stalwarts must inevitably become themselves irrelevant to the new order. This is what a regeneration and renewal of a political party is all about.
Chama Chamapinduzi ruling party of Tanzania provides a very good example of such renewal.
The current Pre-sident of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete, is a product of Chama Chamapinduzi having been a leader of the youth wing of the party in years past.
To be genuinely transformed, ZANU-PF will need to embrace an internationally acceptable democratic culture where free and fair elections determine the government leadership and adopt constitutional governance that devolves power to the people.
ZANU-PF would have to do away with its reliance on the war veterans to spearhead its campaigns for political office. It would have to stop meddling in the constitution-making process and instead allow Zimba-bweans to genuinely engage among themselves to determine how they prefer to be governed.
In the same way that ZANU-PF refuses to implement key elements of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) it signed with two factions of MDC, it is doubtful that the party can willingly embrace the principles that are necessary for a political party that is geared for nation building.
Indeed, the recently announced empowerment regulations dem-anding that foreign owned companies surrender 51 percent of their shareholding to indigenous blacks are yet another factor of nationalist posturing that is unlikely to impress those seeking genuine political re-form.
There is no doubt that the indigenisation regulations were authored by ZANU-PF in its desire to sustain its patronage agenda to reward loyalists and supporters. No one doubts the fact that the disastrous land reform programme of 2000 and now the new indigenisation laws were designed to benefit mostly ZANU-PF followers and defenders of its policies. It is imperative that a genuinely reformed ZANU-PF interested in the country’s economic revival would need to co-operate with partners in the inclusive government to push forward the development agenda and not impede it by erecting road blocks on the road of necessary political changes.
It is no secret that it is ZANU-PF that is largely to blame for the current impasse on the full implementation of the GPA.
It is also patently dishonest for ZANU-PF to blame the European Union (EU) and other Western countries of shifting goal posts on the issue of the removal of sanctions. It is a contradiction in terms that President Mugabe has publicly stated that his party will not budge on the issue of the implementation of the GPA until the sanctions are lifted and yet the re- engagement delegation that recently visited Brussels sought to convince their hosts that much had been done to implement the agreement.
It is not surprising that EU negotiators were far from being impressed by assurances of the inclusive government delegation and told them “progress on the GPA would not be measured by what you say as the inclusive government but our own assessment.”
An assessment that cannot possibly be helped by recent statements by President Mugabe to the effect that Zimbabwe can do without Western aid and can go it alone using its own resources.
The truth of the matter is that unless and until there is genuine political reform in Zimbabwe including the inclusive government working genuinely as equal partners, any re-engagement with the rest of the world will not happen. Not in a thousand years! Statements such as the one attributed to Nkomo is mere posturing if it does not change the ZANU-PF mindset towards full commitment to the implementation of the GPA.
Indeed, if Vice Pre-sident Nkomo is serious about ZANU-PF turning a new leaf and focusing on the development of Zimbabwe, a good starting point would be to disengage the war veterans from all political activities and rein in its supporters who have been engaged in violence over the years to foist its will on the people. That way, we can begin to move forward as a country.

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