But whats with all this paranoia?

On June 9^th, the government of Zimbabwe, through one Chief Superintended G. Moyo, signing off as “Officer Commanding Police, Harare Central District”, wrote back to a local civil society organization, Heal Zimbabwe, formally rejecting the latter’s notified intention to “…hold a candle lighting commemoration of Dr Alex Magaisa..” in Harare.  The excuse given by the authorities, is that the convener (Heal Zimbabwe) failed to comply with Section 7 (1) a of the Maintenance of Peace and Order Chapter 11:23 which reads:

“(a) seven days before the date on which a procession or public demonstration is to be held, give notice of the procession or public demonstration in writing signed by him or her to the regulating authority for the district in which the procession or public demonstration is to be held;”

For argument’s sake, the interpretation would be that the convener failed to notify the authorities in time, as prescribed by this law. This is a potentially valid legal argument. A few hours later, the authorities heavily brought to a premature end, another event hosted by Bishop A Magaya, a known government critic, and leader of Zimbabwe Devine Destiny who was leading a prayer event towards a “..Corruption-free, just, peaceful, prosperous and democratic…” Zimbabwe as per their poster. Legally, again, this would be a sound legal argument, if the convener didn’t comply with MOPA demands.  A few hours later, I was reading another tweet to the effect that authorities in Chitungwiza, had yet again banned another prayer event, desperately held in hope of acquiring divine intervention regarding the disappearance and feared abduction of one Moreblessing Ali, from Chitungwiza. It’s when there seem to be a pattern to this madness, where any legal rationalization of the regime’s intervention begins to loose weight.

The challenge is, there seem to be a clear logic to this madness. In-fact, the government of Zimbabwe is in a perpetual cat and mouse game with its own citizens. How do you rationalize a situation where a government regulates the holding of funeral processions and prayer vigils? Of course the question is rhetorical. When one reads a prohibition notice from Zimbabwean authorities, there is a “well, we’ve seen this nonsense before” feeling that follows. In fact, as I write this, I’m reminded of a conversation I had with a friend recently, where we laughed at how oxymoronic it is, to be citizens in a “new dispensation”, where being a government critic, is actually treated by those concerned with your well-being, as ‘senseless bravado’.

When Alex’s silence becomes even more deafening

Of-course today is a Saturday. For thousands around the world, this is more than another day of the week. Through his pen, Dr Alex Magaisa had socialized many to associate early Saturday mornings with yet another installment of the Big Saturday Read.  He was the great Uncle to whom many went, to seek counsel.

I’ve no doubt that I speak for many, when I say “we” yearn still, to read his thoughts on the controversial Pomona deal; on the latest Afro-barometer survey results, and so much more that has happened over the past two or so weeks. With a heavy heart, I equally found myself wondering what Dr Alex Magaisa would have said about this continued expression of paranoia by the Harare regime, particularly because he has posthumously found himself as its latest victim. Events of the past few days building into weeks, sadly show that the regime’s clampdown on citizens, civil society, and the Opposition is seemingly on the high, as the electoral temperatures slowly heat up.

As I pondered on this, was actually left embarrassed by the fact that when Dr Magaisa passed on, I naively entertained the thought that his demise would attract the government’s attention, through any sort of formal condolence message, even by the lowest civil service official, in government. This was important, not so because Dr Magaisa was an intellectual par excellence, nor because he was another case reference, to the many Zimbabweans doing well in the diaspora. Dr Magaisa was a decorated Zimbabwean teaching law in the UK. This was no mean feat, absolutely deserving recognition. Rather, I felt he deserved a formal recognition for the simple FACT that he had played a significant role in birthing the current Zimbabwean constitution. In any normal society with normal people, you can’t act ignore this fact nor attempt to rewrite this history.

But of-course, save for a few personal messages by “moderates” in the ZanuPF government and party, using a ghetto colloquial expression, “they blue-ticked him”. As if that wasn’t disappointing enough, the Harare regime seems hell-bent on disregarding the legacy of this gentle giant, by even regulating how those who wish to pay homage to him can do so. Yet in reality paranoia and irrational decisions, are a governing style, for the ‘second republic’.

Of-course, we already know that those prohibitions are a problem bigger than possible failure to follow the law with regards to Dr Alex Magaisa's candle lighting funeral event; or Bishop Magaya prayer virgil; or anyone else for that matter. What then, explains this paranoia?

 

2018 was a false start

Democracy, by its very nature, demands that the governing do so, with ‘express consent’ of the governed. That consent should be expressed unequivocally, such that even those pursuing different political interests, will have no choice but to respect it, even if they do not want to accept it. That expression by other terms, is called electoral legitimacy. For any country to enjoy stability, two things must happen. Those in power should have faith in knowing that they retain the support of the governed, while the governed must know the governing are a product of their consent. In a democracy, state institutions should have the capacity to produce and protect this 'consent'. If that’s not the case, elections simply become faulty lines where there’s no trust between the governing and the governed.  Although we know enough to accept that this consent can be by-passed, we equally know enough to understand that doing so, is the recipe used to cook a delicious instability.

For the longest, the Harare regime has governed whilst maintaining a cat and mouse relationship with the citizens. Any resemblance of dissident and opposition, is crushed with unimaginable force. Elsewhere, all successive Zimbabwean budgets continue to show a deliberate inclination towards prioritizing state security clusters as if someone was anticipating an inevitable war, though they constantly characterize locals as ‘peace loving people”. Again, disproportionate reactions from authorities, to any peaceful and non-threatening event involving the Opposition or civil society, is a highlight of their impressive preparedness in executing misplaced priorities.

I will admit to the disappointment of constantly making reference to the disputed 2018 elections. Zimbabwe finds itself less than 12 months away from the next election, meaning that anything that could have been done as corrective measures either wasn’t done or couldn’t be done. Besides the fact that the argument about 2018 legitimacy or lack thereof is now academic, those investing in a change of government come 2023, can ill afford, wasting valuable time, fixating on the proverbial spilt milk. Admittedly, the main Opposition, Citizens Coalition for Change rarely makes reference to that very issue, choosing, rightfully so, to focus all efforts on the battle that awaits.

Ironically however, it’s actually ZanuPF that continues to show political signs of being stuck in 2018. The infamous Chief Justice Luke Malaba Constitutional Court Judgement, and the propaganda that ensured, have dismally failed to inspire the ruling party to focus on governing, as was supposedly expressed by the voters. Since 2018, those governing, in medical terms, continue exhibiting signs and symptoms of being contaminated with the ‘fear of the voters’ virus, especially regarding urbanites. This is despite spirited attempts at selling a narrative that there’s growth in the electoral support for the ruling party in the same urban space. Sadly, shrinking of political space for the Opposition has been the order of the day since 2018. For instance, the first batch of by-elections where only held long after they had become due, with government even ignoring pressure from court applications by aggrieved political players. Even when they were held, the political environment was heavily staked against the main Opposition. Whereas the government expressed seemingly genuine concerns over covid-19, and how public gatherings such as elections, had the potential of being super-spreaders, the mere fact that ZanuPF itself continued with its own political programs, disregarding its own regulations, without any sense of irony and shame, exposed their real fear. That fear was eventually affirmed though  the announcement of the by-election results on March 27th. Unsurprisingly even, when the by-elections were eventually held, in as far as covid-19 fears were concerned, they were absolutely incident free.

Missed opportunities

Instead of stubbornly pushing forward, sowing the seeds of political tensions in the process, the regime could have behaved otherwise. One such options would have been simply allowing state institutions such as the electoral management body, to perform their constitutional functions, free from political influence, to the satisfaction of the governed. But of course, it’s no too hard to see why self-appointed stockholders wouldn’t favor this option. We sadly find ourselves suffering from the consequences of tempering with democracy and peoples vested interest in it.

Second option, controversial as it will sound, could have been trying to ‘manipulate’ this lack of “expressed consent”. One such way was to be through a formal recognition of the main Opposition party, expressed through an invitation to a genuine dialogue aimed at securing a political settlement to the 2018 crisis. Admittedly, this would mean either one of two things. The first being an indirect admission that the announced results were not a true reflection of the ‘expressed consent’ of the voter. Put differently, that recognition would be an admission of electoral manipulation. On another hand, ZanuPF could have still stuck to their announced results, yet still formally reaching out to the main Opposition to say, ‘guys we won, but the results were too close for us to run with a winner takes all attitude’. Borrowing from that ghetto expression once more, it was ill-advised for the regime to pretend as if they could just ‘blue-tick’ Advocate Nelson Chamisa. His performance, and that of the MDC-A party then, especially in urban councils, was evidence enough that his party had an important role in shaping our politics going forward.

It however doesn’t escape noticing, that the regime, instead of recognizing the actual meaning of the results, at least as announced by ZEC, embarked on an ambitious program to decimate the MDC-A party instead, while isolating and politically immobilizing its leader. Sadly for them, the political missiles thrown, only turned into political fertilizer, leaving Chamisa’s supporters even more opposed to the Harare regime. Also, this further deepened our polarization. Had ZanuPF pursued a formal recognition of the support of the alternative’s leader, our political environment wouldn’t be in this state. Of-course, how the alternative would have chosen to react to that recognition, is a different topic altogether.

Thirdly, to give itself breathing space, the regime could have pursued and perhaps secured performance legitimacy, as a way of escaping concerns over “express consent” highlighted earlier. Admittedly though, performance legitimacy itself, is oxymoronic to the very definition of democracy. Regardless, it’s a system where the undesired can become undeniable. This model is perhaps most associated with China. By definition, performance legitimacy is a practice where a government without electoral legitimacy, or one that is disputed, relies on accomplishing concrete goals such as economic growth, social stability, strengthening national power, and general good governance, using these to retain its legitimacy. Sadly for Zimbabwe, the regime has dismally failed to perform its duties, whether mandated to do so, or not. If Zimbabwe was a plane, it’s on auto-pilot, if it was a bus, Mamvura is on the wheels. Citizens have genuinely begun fearing the looming repetition of the catastrophe of 2008, where the economy took an absolute nose-dive through massive hyperinflation.

Everywhere one looks, there are clear signs of a leadership kwashiorkor in Zimbabwe. In sports, the nation finds itself without a single stadium up to required FIFA standards. The national soccer team has since been banned from participating in any international games or tournaments due to government interference. In education, most schooling infrastructure remains in a dilapidated state, with teachers constantly being on, or threatening strikes, as a reaction to their poor remuneration. A week ago now, government gazetted ZIMSEC exam registration fees for public schools in forex, at: USD $11 per subject (O’ level), USD $22 per subject (A level), USD $10 for grade 7s. The forex pegged fees will only be payable in the local currency using the prevailing interbank rate yet civil servants, are getting their salaries pegged in the worthless local currency. The situation will definitely mostly impact parents in the peri-urban and rural spaces, with a number of students potentially either failing to seat for their exams, or only affording a few.

On the 17^th of May, citizens woke up to the news that the country is looking at importing 155 000 tonnes of wheat this year, while raising the price of maize meal and flour. Three days ago today, the price of bread was now ZW $949, 99. The government through a Herald article on the same day, said the rise in maize and flower prices, was “….a direct consequence of the (Russia-Ukraine) war.” On May 31^st, Grain Marketing Board, released a press statement, warning and reminding farmers that maize, soya beans, wheat and barley were “...controlled products...” which should always be ‘delivered to the nearest GMB depot’ and not sold independently, unless with government exemption. All these pronouncements and developments, only but paint a gloomy picture, as far as the state of our Agriculture is concerned.

Former Finance Minister, Tendai Biti, chastised current Finance Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube, for implementing what he called “loud speaker economics” where government “…takes to the podium to announce irrational things”. He equally called Mthuli’s policies, “…irrational pub command economics….putting the country into disrepute”, responding to the scaling down of the forex sold on our controversial auction system, which will only increase inflation due to demand in supply. Currently, the local exchange rate is very much close to 1:600 while the economy itself has evidently self-dollarized.  Wages have collapsed and poverty has absolutely gone out of control. Unemployment remains very much on the rise while on one end, inflation continues to threaten other sources of revenue, for the citizens.

In terms of social services, the crisis keeps deepening. The state of our health system has gone over and beyond shocking. In government hospitals, it’s not surprising to fail to acquire basic pain killers, or gloves. Needlessly, the country was thrown into a transport crisis through the ill-advised ZUPCO monopolization program. About a month ago today, a family gathering where we were celebrating a wedding, almost turned into a funeral when one Uncle visiting from the rural areas, innocently drank tap water in Harare. Within minutes, he developed a frightening diarrhea, sweating uncontrollably. This is the Zimbabwean story. You cannot drink tap water (for the few minutes that it actually comes out of the taps) in the Capital city.

As if that wasn’t enough, citizens continue to be disillusioned with the regime due to its constant interference with the running of local councils thereby rendering them dysfunctional. Recently, the Minister of Local Government, a senior ZanuPF official and ally of the president, fast-tracked the then MDC-T controlled Harare City Council into a ‘Pomona Dumpsite deal’ with a Netherlands registered company called Geogenix BV. The company, according to the deal, will invest USD $344 million in a waste-energy project at the massive HCC owned Pomona Dumpsite, aiming to generate 22 megawatts of electricity to be sold to ZESA. Controversially however, through the deal, HCC basically loses the Pomona site, and then has to pay the company US $40 per tonne of refuse delivered at the site, with the agreed delivery being 550 tonnes per day and about 200,750 tonnes per year. This translates to around USD $22 000 per day, and USD $8.03 million in the first year alone. The deal runs for 30 years. The cancelation of the deal will attract a breach of contract amounting to around USD $3.5 million. Its common knowledge that HCC simply doesn’t have the capacity to deliver as per that contract, yet was rushed into singing off this agreement, which government calls a ‘National Project’ though it’s the council and rate payers, footing the bill. This is just another money making scheme, by hawks in government.

It will actually take a whole month chronicling how the government of Zimbabwe has dismally failed the citizens. The country is simply jumping from one crisis to another, corruption being the order of the day from those in stewardship of national resources. Any chance of obtaining performance legitimacy has absolutely vanished. And how does the regime respond? It accuses those outside power, of being responsible for their own mess. It treats anyone and everyone with suspicion, and potentially being a threat to the ‘maintenance of peace and order’. Unfortunately, as it does so, the regime becomes irrational, dangerous and bloodthirsty. They dread the site of citizens congregating anywhere. For them, even prayer events are actually a ‘threat to national security.’ Instead of directly acquiring the citizen’s expressed consent, they want to legislate it through draconian laws and repression. This, is the source of all this paranoia and it will only get worse, sadly.

 

enkosi!!