The ABCD of Zimbabwe’s problems

To say that the people of Zimbabwe have undergone a traumatic and debilitating experience over the past nine years is, perhaps, a great understatement. In the normal scheme of things, nine years is not a very long time compared to, say, the four hundred years that the biblical children of Israel were held in bondage in Egypt. For the past nine years, however, there has been a consistent cry from the oppressed and suffering masses in Zimbabwe to be set free from Robert Mugabe’s diabolical and corrupt regime. In elections in 2000, 2002, 2005 and, now, in 2008 the message from the voters has been a loud, clear and consistent “let my people go”.

However Mugabe has not listened and, instead, has hardened his heart to the pleas of the suffering people. I have been exercising my mind on why Mugabe has so far failed to read the very clear signs around him that he is now a spent force – despised, hated and unwanted by his own people. Why he has tolerated persistent humiliation in successive elections, the results of which he has unashamedly rigged and manipulated to retain power. I have arrived at the conclusion that Mugabe is sustained, if not trapped, by a combination of four forces which I will designate the ABCDs of Zimbabwe’s problems. These four forces are accumulation, betrayal, collusion and deception.

The first problem we have is accumulation of personal wealth and benefit by the ruling elite. Until very recently, Zimbabwe was a well endowed country. It had a well functioning economy backed by an abundance of natural resources and an educated and industrious population. While corruption existed in high places it was not widespread, was generally petty in scope and was disdained by much of the population. Corrupt activities were quickly exposed and perpetrators punished as was the case in the Willowgate scandal of the late 1980s when a number of minister’s were forced to resign and one committed suicide following a public enquiry into their role in looting a government owned company.

Well into the 1990s corruption continued to be shunned, with some ministers losing their positions when they were caught on the wrong side of the law. Somewhere along the way, probably in the mid 90s the corruption scales tipped beyond the point of return and, all of sudden, there was a frenzy of accumulation by those in power. This accumulation polarised the nations into classes of “haves” and “have nots”. The haves were mostly the ruling elite and their close associates while just about everyone else slid into the have nots category. This divide precipitated deep social anger and instability which culminated in the demands by the war veterans for a share of the spoils to which the politicians were gratuitously indulging alone. This group had fought in the frontlines of the liberation war yet had become marginalised and forgotten after the attainment of independence. It is this same spirit of accumulation that has become an obstacle for change as those in power are not willing to move away from their feeding trough for fear of hunger in future.

The second problem is the betrayal which the Zimbabwean people have endured at various times and in different guises. Firstly, the people have been betrayed by their own government and leaders – people who they put in power to preside over their affairs and to defend their interests. The government has demonstrated utmost incompetence, disdain and disregard of good governance principles and practices and, if anything, has shown that they are only interested in protecting their own interests and damn everyone else’s. Mugabe has betrayed everything for which the sons and daughters of Zimbabwe sacrificed so much during the liberation war – freedom, liberty, peace, security and prosperity. Now the people of Zimbabwe are less free than at any time during their history – so much so that even the Ian Smith era now appears to have been paradisiacal.

The people have also been betrayed by the world which has stood by and done very little or nothing to relieve them of their suffering. Much of the world has watched as the helpless people of Zimbabwe have been decimated and dismembered by the voracious and ferocious regime of Mugabe. While others have made polite noises and imposed token and ineffective sanctions against the regime, many more have simply watched like spectators in a Roman arena watching slaves being torn up by hungry lions. The latter’s world’s view in encapsulated in President Thabo Mbeki recent infamous statement that “there is no crisis in Zimbabwe”. In my mind, Mbeki has been the greatest betrayer of the Zimbabwean people in that, over many years, he has been entrusted to find solutions to relieve the Zimbabweans of their suffering yet he has chosen to side with the oppressor.

This brings me to the big C – collusion. There is very little doubt in my mind that the present situation in Zimbabwe is a result of active and, sometimes, passive collusion by many in positions of influence and power who have strived to defend, promote and strengthen the status quo instead of working towards change. Starting with the corrupt generals and security chiefs who have colluded with the politicians in Zimbabwe to deny the people their democratic rights and privilege, to institutions such as the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission who have abandoned their constitutional duty to administer free and fair elections and are now openly colluding with the ruling clique to deny the people the right to know the results of the election, to leaders of neighbouring countries who persistently failed to condemn the excesses of their colleague and to reign him in.

Last but not least is the deception which the people of Zimbabwe and the world at large have endured for so long. Just the other day, I had an unannounced visitor who, upon learning that I was Zimbabwean, began to extol the virtues of Mugabe and to complain bitterly about how he was being victimised by the western countries for his stand against the whites. For a good part of half an hour I listened with growing exasperation as the man went on and on about how Mugabe was a great fighter and the world’s last great hope against the domination of the black race by the whites. All the problems being experience in Zimbabwe were not a fault of Mugabe, he expatiated, but of Messrs Brown and Bush, the World Bank, the IMF and other international donors.

Of course I didn’t have an opportunity to throw in one or two words edgewise otherwise I would have asked why, if Mugabe was putting up such a gallant fight against evil white people, it was his black people who were suffering the most and now fleeing the country in droves? This experience showed me to what extent the deception of Mugabe has sunk in the minds of many left wingers around the world. What is worth remembering is that the problems of Zimbabwe did not start with the so called repossession and redistribution of the land in 2000. The land issue became a useful decoy and distraction after Mugabe’s loss of the constitutional referendum of that year. Before then, the land issue was one of those insoluble and perennial issues which Mugabe’s government conveniently ignored and only remembered at or around election time.

Scholars and historians will no doubt agree that the real problems of Zimbabwe started on some fateful day in late 1997 when Mugabe, under intense pressure for compensation and reward for the war efforts from the liberation war veterans, unilaterally decided to award them five billion Zimbabwean dollars which was not budgeted for. In a matter of days, the value of the Zimbabwe dollar collapsed by more than one hundred percent. That decision had nothing to do with the British or the Americans or the World Bank or the IMF. It was a Mugabe decision, made under pressure from his own allies and probably under advice from the people around him. That was the real genesis of all the economic problems which Zimbabwe is facing today. Of course the problem was then compounded by Mugabe again unilaterally sending his troops into a war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a war from which Zimbabwe did not stand to benefit in any way other than for the few generals and senior politicians.

To now claim that the problems of Zimbabwe are due to British machinations over the land issue is deceit of the worst kind. It is a jaundiced and delusional perspective to the issues and a brazen denial of the realities on the ground. For a long time and for some known and unknown reasons most of the African leaders and other leftists have stuck to the fallacy that Mugabe is a victim of neo-colonialism but the recent events in Zimbabwe have proved this to be a lie. It’s now clear that Mugabe is no better than other infamous African megalomaniac dictators – Mobutu, Idi Amin, Bokassa, Mengistu, Eyedéma, etc. The real tragedy is that many of these dictators existed in the era of the cold war where their excesses were tolerated in pursuit of geopolitical and ideological alliances. Mugabe, on the other hand, is living in an era of globalisation and enlightenment when human rights abuses and undemocratic behaviour are no longer accepted or tolerated.

So what are the prospects and solutions for Zimbabwe? Again I have exercised my mind at length on this matter and have identified my ABCD solution which will be the subject of my next instalment in this blog.