By Terence Chimhavi
| Citizens queue to vote. |
The political dynamics to engulf
the country post the 2013 harmonized elections though depressing, present a lot
of hope for those in pursuit of a more justiciable, socially accountable and
democratic national order, if discerned from a more critical angle. This argument
is with regards to the general upheavals to dog various political parties
and/or movements, which upheavals have unfortunately not spared the civic
space.
 |
| Joice Mujuru - casualty of purge. |
One key point that you will note
in trying to extricate the real reason or reasons behind - the purges within
and from political parties; personal differences leading to splitting of parties
and organizations; the overt in-fighting apparent in many political and civic
outfits – they all come at a great cost to the ordinary citizen. Some will take
issue to the general paralysis within the ruling party due to this infighting which
threatens their capacity as a government to clearly lead and direct national
development; others bemoan the near dearth of a movement once thought to be a
democratic alternative to the Zanu PF hegemony; and others are beginning to
lose hope in a vibrant civic society that can genuinely push for social
accountability on the part of government to its citizens.
| Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi - won't give up power. |
You will find in all this
however, a general trend that, as times have moved, the idea of a social
democratic order, where the government is chiefly responsible for the welfare
of its citizens, is slowly but surely getting currency and becoming more and more accepted as a
precursor to sustainable development globally. Moving with it is the equally fundamental idea that succession is a normal functional tenet of any
vibrant organization. Even regional blocs on the continent,
notably the AU, EAC, ECOWAS and SADC all have charters that actively promote social
justice and democracy on the continent.
| President Mugabe - accused of holding onto power undemocratically. |
As a result, where the leadership
of any institution or organization, political or civic, is not alive to some of the fundamental
tenets of democracy, they are left with little option but to act
undemocratically, unfortunately in pursuit of holding on to undemocratic
decisions, which they can only defend if still firmly in control. This is where
emanates the fixation by most leaders in civic and political movements to
continue their stay in power in perpetuation, using all sorts of justifications
as may appease the situation.
| Expelled for also wanting leadership change. |
And the fact that within such
organizations still exist some people who are prepared to challenge such
autocracy, exercised both overtly and covertly, in the face of imminent
expulsions, censures, intimidation, what have you, is telling of the belief
that members of most organizations still have that they hold the power to call
leadership to account. It’s no wonder then that you will
have Zanu PF as a party expelling or suspending a host of its erstwhile leaders
on allegations of trying to topple their long-serving leader. Of course these
members of the party are concerned with the fact that the country cannot be
perpetually held under the leadership of one individual when all other
countries, with whom we ‘fellowship’, regularly change leaders. Even the
statutes to which we are chief custodians (at least for the remainder of the respective
terms) promote and encourage change of leadership, based on the notion of
bequeathing, for posterity’s sake, what we may hold dear, to the next
generation.
It then becomes apparent that even though they may tell a different
story publicly, there are a lot of people within Zanu PF who believe in an open
succession plan for the party, in line with what is generally accepted
regionally and even globally. The ANC and Chama Cha Mapinduzi are just but a
few of Zanu PF’s contemporaries who have benefited as political outfits from
clear succession plans.
| We started together but now... |
It’s sad that the opposition in Zimbabwe
has generally not learnt as well (or is refusing to learn) from how stability
within an institution can actually be strengthened through having clear
succession plans. Much as leaders may detest the idea, the one constant of life
is change – it can only be delayed but never avoided. And the differences that
have led to successive splits in the opposition movement, though largely personal,
also show that the era where an individual can domineer over a people in
perpetuity is fast fading. Because people, as individuals, have diverse ideas and thinking,
all mostly intended for the good of the collective or the common good, believe
that anyone is capable of leading, for as long as clear rules on how such
leadership is exercised are stipulated and adhered to, with sound
accountability foundations.
| Thabo Mbeki - learnt the hard way. |
If people no longer agree with
you as a leader or with your leadership (in terms of political or policy
direction), they will tell you, and if you are arrogant enough to try and
silence them, then they will obviously take action to ensure they do away with
you. Granted, these efforts can equally be unsuccessful or autocratically
crushed but they do not die away entirely. And the idea that a leader clings on
to power when a significant proportion of those they lead think they have
overstayed, is definitely as much a personal as a moral blow to the authority
of any such leader.
Therefore much as the goings-on
in the mainstream political and civic space may be depressing as you watch from
a distance, as they clearly impede progress to the collective goal of attaining,
at the least, the common good, they are also testimony from a closer
perspective, to the idea that autocratic leadership will always be challenged,
even from within as it may then equally translate outside. And it is from the ambers
and off-shoots of such challenge, that real movement towards social justice and
democracy will emerge to do away with autocratic, elitist hegemony.
The writer writes in his personal capacity and can be contacted at tchimhavi@gmail.com
